Throughout her presentation, Lisa emphasized the importance of discomfort, and its role in feeding creativity. Her career, itself, began with divorce. During this time, she was living alone, working alone, just in general being alone. It was something she was unfamiliar with, having been in a relationship with someone for the past 8 years. It was, as she stated, a time of loneliness. But instead of immediately seeking another mate, wallowing in her sorrows, or reducing herself to excessive drinking, she indulged herself in the pleasures of art. Around this time, her older brother, then 34 (she was 32), was interested in taking art classes, but didn’t want to take them alone. So Lisa began painting alongside her brother.

The beginning of her career foreshadows the coming tale of her design career. Born out of a chaotic time, a time of uncertainty, her career as an artist has been nothing but trial and error, and a bunch of experimentation in between. Her earliest experiments with art — drawing, painting, collaging — left her feeling uncertainty within herself about her level of skill and/or talent. Still, she continued to produce work, all the while sharing it via the internet for however few people were able to view it.

In her presentation, Lisa stressed the importance of sharing your work. The importance of sharing your work is great, but the way for which it’s done today greatly differs from the way Lisa Congdon experienced it. When Lisa began sharing her work, the Internet was still in the early stages of social development. Artists weren’t initially exposed to so many viewers in such a short period of time, like they are today via Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. This is important in how her work was shaped. While Lisa was fully aware that her work was public through sharing, she didn’t feel her work was being exposed to very many people. So she continued to share her work, which, over the years, has lead to her acquiring paid, contract positions. Sharing has also helped her compare her work to other artists, as well as get some feedback on her work.

There were many instances where she reverted back to emphasizing the importance of working outside your comfort zone, and taking risks. She mad it abundantly clear when she stated,” we cannot achieve our dreams without risk” that she’s not about turning away from unfamiliar experiences. One experience she highlighted in her presentation came about by working with writer Taylor Bruce. Taylor Bruce approached Lisa to illustrate a series of maps to accompany his writing. At the time, Lisa wasn’t very familiar with illustrating maps, and her only instruction was that she was completely free to play with scale and composition. With those rules clearly stated, she set about sketching what she thought a map would, and could, look like. She sent the sketch to Taylor, via email, and received a reply with the message “call me” written in it. At this point in time, she’s a little more than nervous. She’s terrified at what he’s going to say. Her immediate thought it, “well, I’m fired!” But she gathers herself, picks up the phone and calls Taylor. His message, that he really wanted to emphasis over the phone, was simple: “I love it!”

Finally, she concludes her presentation with some of the best advice any designer can offer: define yourself by your humanity, not your achievements, failures, or mistakes. Being self-taught, she spent years attempting to define herself through her success, as if it would decide whether or not she’s a reputable artist or not. She compared her work to others, and constantly questioned her abilities, or direction. It wasn’t until all was said and done that she realized it doesn’t matter. What matters most is her happiness, and however that can be achieved.

The start of her career, and the resulting work it has produced, was very inspirational for those of us that feel uncertainty in our work. Her attitude, lack of fear, and work itself proved to be quite an inspirational start to a wonderful day at Typo.

 

 

— Peter Berki
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