Crush of the Week: Lisa Congdon

Lisa in Martha Stewart Living, February 2011

Lisa Congdon. Need I say more? Ok, I will, but if you don't already know who she is, then shame on you! And shame on me for being completely speechless due to a chronic case of Major Crush. I honestly can't bare to bore you will my incessant jabbering because even the About page on Lisa's website makes my crush flare up. Just listen to this...

"San Francisco illustrator and fine artist Lisa Congdon was raised in both upstate New York and Northern California where she grew to love the trees and animals that surrounded her. That love is now expressed most intensely through her paintings and drawings. Lisa comes from a family of creative people and has been making things with her hands since she was a little girl, but she did not begin painting until she was 33 years old. Ten years later, it is now the most significant part of her life and livelihood. Aside from four painting classes, Lisa is entirely self-taught. Three years ago, she left a career as a leader in the education nonprofit world to pursue a full-time creative life."

Did you hear that? She didn't even begin painting until she was 33 and she is completely self-taught! Lisa, you not only inspire me with your fantastic creativity and talent, but you give me hope as a self-taught and late-blooming artist myself. Your work is magic!

"Lisa is [also] a prolific collector of old and unusual things, including bits of nature, and surrounds herself with these things in her home and studio. In 2010 she chronicled all of her collections in her Collection A Day 2010 Project. That project will become a book, published in March 2011. You can read more about + order her book here."