In My Kitchen | Lisa Congdon

“When my wife and I first walked into the house we ended up purchasing in Portland, there were two things that immediately made us swoon. One was the purple, sweet-smelling wisteria growing outside. The other was the tiny kitchen nook with a built in table. After almost two years in the 1898 house, the table inside the nook has become the place where we not only eat most of our meals (we also sometimes eat at the dining room table), but also where we hash out disagreements, make our weekly grocery lists, listen to NPR every morning as we drink our coffee, console each other when we’re having hard days and brainstorm weekend plans. The small nook is surrounded by windows on two sides, which makes it extra bright, and also like you are sitting in a forest during the Spring, when the trees outside are covered in foliage. I covered some vintage Danish stools with Marimekko laminated cloth to go at the table (which is stool height), and we have a few precious mementos at the end of the table. This summer we are going to remodel our kitchen, but we won’t be touching the nook.”

About Lisa: Illustrator and writer Lisa Congdon is best known for her colorful graphic paintings, intricate line drawings, pattern design & hand lettering. She works for clients around the world including MoMA, Harvard University, Lululemon and Chronicle Books, among many others. Lisa is the author of six books, including the starving-artist-myth-smashing Art Inc: The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artist, and illustrated books The Joy of Swimming, Fortune Favors the Brave and Whatever You Are, Be a Good One. Her seventh book, A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives will be released in October 2017. She was named one of 40 Women Over 40 to Watch in 2015. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

After being a fan of Lisa’s work for several years, I had the pleasure of meeting her at The Hello Sessions in October, 2015. She taught a workshop on passion projects, and it was such a hit that we asked her to be our keynote speaker at The Hello Sessions in 2016, where she gave one of the most fantastic keynote addresses I’ve ever heard. I now happily get to call her my friend. She is amazingly talented, endlessly kind, and completely inspiring. A huge thank you to Lisa for letting us peek inside her kitchen, and for helping me bring back this blog series, which is one of my favorites.