★ MEET N‘ GREET ★
Lisa Congdon

Jess Wheaton interviews Lisa Congdon

1. Firstly, where are you from and how have you come to live in (or remain in?) San Francisco? What is the importance of place for you and your work? What are your favorite and least favorite things about SF? Is there another part of the world that affects you with its strong magnetic pull?

I am originally from upstate New York. I moved to California when I was 8 years old. I did most of my growing up in Los Gatos, which is a beautiful and historic town in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, in the South Bay. I went to college in the East Bay and then promptly moved to San Francisco the day after graduation. I have never left.

My favorite things about San Francisco are its people, diversity, food, art/design scene and access to music. I live in the Mission and I love my neighborhood most (for all the reasons stated previously) There is very little I do not like about this place. But it is really expensive to live here, so that’s really challenging for me as a working artist. That said, after 18 years I can’t imagine living anywhere else, so I make it work!

2. I understand that, out of the blue, you took a single painting class at age 33 with your brother and never turned back. Did you create/quilt/paint prior to your "transformation," if it was one? What was the experience like of suddenly knowing what you had to do for the rest of your life? Was it a long time coming, or a blinding flash?

I think it was more a long time coming. I grew up in a very creative family (my mom was a textile artist and now an art quilter) so I learned a lot of crafting skills early on and was always inspired to put them to use in the ways most people do: decorating, making gifts for friends, etc. I think the painting class in 2001 (which led to several more) and my success in it, made me realize that I could do so much more than sew and make crafts. I kept painting and painting and started making collage and drawing. Around 2005 I was approached by someone who read my blog about having my first show. It’s been insane ever since.

3. Please tell us about your content and those neon colors. What are your sources of inspiration? How do your ideas for a work come to you, and what is your process for getting a work made? Is there strategy behind your palette, content, and scale? 

I have not always used neon colors in my work. This is very new. In my next show at Paper Boat Gallery in Milwaukee is entitled Life in WonderMountain—I will continue to explore the chimeric world of the WonderMountain dwellers, whose world is made up of opposites. It’ll be my first three-dimensional installation. I’ll use worn vintage crochet and sepia-toned photographs juxtaposed with fantastical brightly colored neon geometric details, to attempt to create an enchanted world of old and new, graphic and earthy, frightening and familiar.

Typically I work around themes like the one I just described. I make "bodies of work" that are tied together in some way, usually by imagery and color. They just come to me and I experiment with mediums and materials in the process. Sometimes what’s in my head works and sometimes it doesn’t. I spend a lot of time in the studio making stuff, much of which no one ever sees. I think a lot of artists work like that.

 
4. I read on your blog that you attribute much of your success as a working artist to your own and others’ blogging. Can you describe just how that happened, and the phenomenon of your growing exposure? Did your advances in the "real" world follow after the establishment of your internet presence, or are the two now indistinguishable? What’s going on with the internet and the art world anyway?

I definitely attribute enormous amount of my success to the internet and to my blog. I am incidentally taking my blog down forever in October, so for now it is becoming a thing of the past for me. I have loved blogging...and it allowed me to share my work and process with people in a way that would not have been otherwise possible, and to connect with other artists and designers. But it’s also really time consuming, and in order for it to feel inspiring to others, I feel like I need to be inspired to post. I have become a bit burned out. Like with anything you do for years day after day, sometimes you need to change or move on. I am forever grateful for what the blog movement did for my life and for my place in its history. I would not be where I am without it. It’s an exceptional tool for sharing your creative endeavors with others and being part of a community of artists.

5. I know that you regard your lack of formal training as an "advantage." Can you talk more about this, and the disadvantages one might receive from training? Do you ever wish you’d tried out art school all the same? What do you think the differences in perception, creation, etc are between you and someone who has solely pursued art from a young age?

My mind wavers on this a lot. On the one hand, I feel that I struggle more to render things successfully in my paintings and drawings because of my lack of formal training. There is a looseness and and informalness with which I approach my work, which I might not have if i’d gone through tons of training and critique. But I also know that rigor could have been so helpful to me. So I am not sure at this point in my career if it is entirely an advantage. I do not hold the same prestige with galleries and residency programs that some of my studio mates do who have their MFA. I don’t even have a BFA. But I am not alone...there are many of us out there. And we are making our way.

6. Who are your 5 favorite artists, and what’s your hugest aspiration?

This is a really hard question because I have so many favorite artists, BUT...here are five of my favorite artists: Margaret Kilgallen, Barry McGee, Mike Maxwell, Katy Horan and Cody Hudson.

My hugest aspiration is to make enough money making art for the rest of my life that I can afford to continue to make art in a nice studio and travel the world on the side.

Thanks again Lisa for being a part of Little Paper Planes with your letterpress print.