Lily’s work asks questions about the subjectivity of reality. By using oil paint and ballpoint pen to render snapshots of space and time, she displays the juxtaposition between the pursuit of objectivity and the truth that there is none. This results in pieces that are figurative but not strictly realistic - creating elaborate dreamscapes that exist somewhere between actuality and daydreams. She draws on the collective unconscious that transcends the individual while allowing room for interpretation.

     Horses and dogs are often the subject matter in her paintings, due to their perennial joint history with humankind, acting as a sort of proxy for the human experience. Horses in particular have a contradictory nature - strong but easily injured, huge but nimble, stubborn but emotive. Dogs are stand-ins for ideas of loyalty, utility, service, and companionship.

     Her works draws viewers in and invites them to interrogate and interpret by directing their gaze. She engages them through their own lens of reality by using visual archetypes and familiar, although sometimes unlikely, scenes. The representational image doesn’t seek to establish its own objective correctness, but serves as a reference point for the place where the artist and audience meet. Using reverent, careful detail and an eye for color inspired by her screen printing background, her work asks the viewer to look, see, and stay a while.