Cover | David Levenson
Julia Morgan (gouache and acrylic on wood, 2013). Fine artist and illustrator Lisa Congdon is best known for her colorful paintings and collages. Over the past year, Congdon has been drawing and painting influential historical women; her portrait of East Bay architect Julia Morgan is part of the series. Paper patchwork, patterns, and a textile presence in her work reference her longtime romance with surface design, in particular the design and folk pattern of Scandinavia and other cultures. Congdon’s work also contains obvious juxtapositions: combining bold neon colors with vintage sepia-toned photographs and traditional graphite drawings with collaged geometric shapes. An illustrator for many companies including Chronicle Books, HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon and Schuster, she is a voracious world traveler, and plans to visit a different country or city every year for the rest of her life. Congdon lives in Oakland with her partner and animals. For info: lisacongdon.com.
NEXT MONTH: Personal essays on “What I Miss,” the cool kids of Oakland’s Prescott Circus Theatre, and an excerpt from Holding Silvan, by Berkeley author Monica Wesolowska.