When I first met illustrator, author, and teacher Lisa Congdon, she was working out of a studio in San Francisco.
We became fast friends shortly after we taped our first conversation, and I fell in love, not just with her work, but with her big heart, her thoughtful lens on work and life, love and play, and the quest to make things and be creative.
I also really love that Lisa didn't come to art until she was almost 40 years old.
And over the last dozen years or so, she has shown so many people with her generosity how it's never too late to step into your creative side, whether or not it ever becomes your career.
And of course, for her, it has.
Now, with this really thriving career, a long list of commissions from everyone from private collectors to giant companies, public shows.
She is astonishingly prolific, sharing a huge volume of work on social media, creating and selling online in her retail store and workshop in Portland, Oregon, and collaborating to create everything from textiles to all sorts of merchandise.
And along the way, she's written and illustrated a bunch of books, taught and spoken all over the world.
And now, before taking a sabbatical in 2020, she has released one more offering into the world, a great new book called find your artistic voice, which is all about discovering and sharing that deepest, most unique part of yourself, both as an artist and a human being.
We dive into and explore all of this in today's conversation, along with things like how saying yes isn't always the best option, the role of seeming non creative practices in living your best creative life and life beyond that, and why working less can sometimes actually be a path to more and better work and living and so much more.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.
This book tour was sort of an experiment for me because I have never traveled for this long and sort of simultaneously had to keep marching forward, but also maintain all the aspects of my business and life at the same time.
And I'm happy to report that it went great.
Somehow.
The lick on your face is one of, like, surprise.
Well, I think the whole time I kept thinking, like some, I don't know that I expected there to be a disaster, but I think I expected maybe more delayed flights or more glitches.
And believe me, there were a handful of glitches in the tour, equipment failures and things like that.
And I did get a really bad cold about a week ago, which I'm now at the tail end of.
But other than that, really, it was fine.