Lisa Congdon (born January 17, 1968) is an American fine artist, author and illustrator. She has worked for clients including

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Martha Stewart Living ''Martha Stewart Living'' is a magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), ...

REI Recreational Equipment, Inc., doing business as REI, is an American retail and outdoor recreation services corporation. It was formerly governed, and continues to brand itself, as a consumers' co-operative. REI sells camping gear, hiking, clim ...

, and

Chronicle Books Chronicle Books is a San Francisco–based American publishing company that publishes books for both adults and children. History The company was established in 1967 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publish ...

. Congdon is the author of ''Art Inc: The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artist;'' ''Whatever You Are, Be a Good One;'' ''Twenty Ways to Draw a Tulip; Fortune Favors the Brave; The Joy of Swimming; A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives;'' and ''A Collection A Day.'' She has also illustrated six

coloring book A coloring book (British English: colouring-in book, colouring book, or colouring page) is a type of book containing line art to which people are intended to add color using crayons, colored pencils, marker pens, paint or other artistic media. ...

s for adults as part of her Just Add Color series. Notable books adorned by Lisa’s illustrations include ''Broad Strokes'' (

, 2017) and ''Tender Buttons'' by Gertrude Stein (

, 2013).

Biography

Congdon grew up in upstate New York and

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

. She married her partner Clay Lauren Walsh on June 1, 2013. She lives and works in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

Awards and honors

Congdon was named one of 40 Women Over 40 to Watch in 2015. and she is featured in the 2017 book, ''200 Women Who Will Change the Way you See the World''.

Authored books

''A Collection A Day''

Congdon started a blog called ''A Collection A Day'', which was started in January 2010. Over the course of a year, Congdon posted a collection a day of various items she has acquired. According to Congdon, the collections were assembled from "flea markets, thrift stores, junk shops, garage sales, giveaway piles and family attics." The collections featured are often everyday objects such as 14 mid-century

napkin ring The napkin ring, occasionally called a Christening bangle, was originally used to identify the napkins of a household between weekly wash days. The figural napkin ring is an American specialty in which the simple napkin ring is part of a small f ...

s (day 113) or eight old

pencil sharpener A pencil sharpener (or pencil pointer, or in Ireland a parer or topper) is a tool for sharpening a pencil's writing point by shaving away its worn surface. Pencil sharpeners may be operated manually or by an electric motor. It is common for m ...

s for Day 78). ''A Collection A Day'' was published as a printed book in 2011 by ''

UPPERCASE Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''#Majuscule, majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally ''#Minuscule, minuscule'') in the written representation of certain langua ...

'' magazine.

''Whatever You Are, Be a Good One''

Published in April 2014 by

, ''Whatever You Are, Be a Good One'' is a collection of 100 timeless quotes from some of histories' most notable minds, all illustrated and hand-lettered by Lisa Congdon. Some of the quotes come from the likes of

Albert Camus Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

, and Anais Nin. The book began when Congdon wanted to incorporate more hand-lettering into her practice, which she started to do by creating her "365 Days of Hand Lettering Project" on her blog over the course of 2012. The project evolved from drawing individual letters to full quotes. Over time, after Congdon had shared these images, she learned that readers found that the quotes had "...comforted them in times of darkness or reminded them to approach a challenge in a new way." From there, the focus of the book became a celebration of great thinkers as well as a way of sharing their words with a larger community.

''Art Inc. The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist''

Congdon also authored ''Art Inc. The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist'' which was published in August 2014 by

. The book introduces information about creating and starting a creative business, as well as offers insight from other illustrators, designers and entrepreneurs. The book offers tools and information on how to "set actionable goals, diversify your income, manage your bookkeeping, copyright your work, promote with social media, build a standout website, exhibit with galleries, sell and price your work, license your art, acquire an agent, and more."

''Fortune Favors the Brave''

Published in August 2015 by

, and similar to here prior book ''Whatever You Are, Be A Good One'', ''Fortune Favors the Brave'' features 100 illustrated and hand-lettered quotations themed on courage, bravery, authenticity, and being yourself.

''The Joy of Swimming: A Celebration of Our Love for Getting in the Water''

Debuted in April 2016 and published by

, ''The Joy of Swimming: A Celebration of Our Love for Getting in the Water'', celebrates swimming through inspirational hand lettered quotes, watercolor portraits of swimmers paired with real personal swimming stories, and illustrated collections of swimming objects such and traditional pool signs, bathing suits through history. The book also includes a foreword written by

Lynne Cox Lynne Cox (born January 2, 1957) is an American long-distance open water swimmer, writer, and speaker. She is best known for being the first person to swim between the United States and the Soviet Union, in the Bering Strait, a feat which has ...

, an American long-distance open-water swimmer and writer.

A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives

Published by

in October 2017, ''A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives,'' explores the power of women over the age of forty who are thriving and living life on their own terms. Profiles, interviews, and essays from women—including Vera Wang, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Julia Child, Cheryl Strayed, and many more—who've found creative fulfillment and accomplished great things in the second half of their lives are lavishly illustrated and hand-lettered in Congdon's signature style.

Art exhibitions

Congdon's gallery (group and solo) shows include participation at the Dorothy Saxe Invitational Exhibition at the

Contemporary Jewish Museum The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) is a non-collecting museum at 736 Mission Street at Yerba Buena Lane in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The museum, which was founded in 1984, is located in the histori ...

(San Francisco, 2012), Museum of Design (Atlanta, 2017), Bedford Gallery (Walnut Creek, CA, 2013, 2014), and

Fullerton College Fullerton College (FC) is a public community college in Fullerton, California. The college is part of the California Community Colleges System and the North Orange County Community College District. Established in 1913, it is the oldest communi ...

in 2018. She has participated in artist residencies at Summit Powder Mountain (2015) and

(2018).

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Congdon, Lisa 1968 births Living people Artists from Portland, Oregon American illustrators American women artists 21st-century American non-fiction writers American women bloggers American bloggers 21st-century American women writers American women non-fiction writers