Styled with a Smile - Page 3

In Lisa's art, as in her life, idea and technique meet—thanks to hard work. It was her idea to become an artist, late though it came to her. She hesitated early on, and was advised against it, including by her parents.

As a teacher, her pay had been "nothing," she recalls. Then as a project manager for a couple of education nonprofits in San Francisco, she earned in the $60,000s. "I thought that was so much money. I mean, my salary doubled."

Still, just a few years after first making art, Lisa says, "I left my job in 2007, and I really started to draw and paint pretty seriously, and do cut paper collage—like basically make art."

Lisa began creating landscapes and figures in a realistic mode, because that is what she was taught. But, she says, "I decided that commercial illustration was the direction that I wanted to go. A lot of the artists that I was really heavily influenced by were commercial illustrators or graphic designers."

About the mid-century designers who inspired her—including Herve Morvan, Ray and Charles Eames, Bruno Munari, and Mary Blair—Lisa says, "I think my kind of pared-down, very modern painting style and drawing style is definitely the result of that inspiration."

"Another huge influence is folk art," she says, "which was a huge influence for Alexander Girard, and I think for other mid-century artists."

"I have sort of morphed over time into a more stylized version of representational work," Lisa says, "a flat, more graphic style."

The Danish curator Jeroen Smeets, who has worked with Lisa through his 'The Jaunt,' a program that sends artists on travels to inspire new work, says she has her own look.

"When I looked at her work, I was immediately smitten by her use of vivid colors and the way she combines insightful and optimistic wisdom in an aesthetic that is unmistakably hers," he says.

"I think that what sets Lisa's work apart is her sense and her ability to share creative energy," Jeroen says. "Through the messaging in her artworks she is inspiring her audience to believe in themselves, to get creative, and experiment, and fight the good cause."

Lisa cites, as signatures of her style, "pared-down color palettes and really clean lines," "repeating shapes and symbols," and use of typography. She acknowledges there is something childlike, too. "I love making things that make people happy and make people smile," Lisa says.

"I think part of the reason that I get asked to illustrate children's books is because my work has that sort of whimsical look, halfway between realistic and imaginary. And it's super colorful, too, which I think is really appealing to kids."

Lettering, so much a part of Lisa's work today, did not come easily, she says.

"To get more work as an illustrator, I needed to get better at typography and hand lettering," she says. "And so I kind of forced myself to practice it every day and post something that I was making.