This week's Featured Buyer is self-taught artist, gallery curator [Rare Device] and Etsian Lisa Congdon. We are great admirers of Lisa's unique and inspiring style, so she was an obvious choice for Featured Buyer. Enjoy! And read the interview afterward!

My name is Lisa Congdon and I am a completely self-taught (except for occassional classes) mixed media artist/designer/craftsperson living and working in San Francisco.  I share a very large studio space with a community of six other artists in the Dogpatch neighborhood of the city. I am also gallery director/curator and co-owner of Rare Device in San Francisco, a store and gallery opening in late October 2007 on Market Street. I have been a fan of Etsy since it started, but I only joined Etsy and began selling my work in August of 2007. It's been a mad flurry of activity ever since.

Who doesn’t have a current obsession with sea urchins? This one by Passementerie is perfect.


I love the size of this thing. She’s taken what would be a really cool necklace and made it even cooler by making it huge.


Love these for the same reason I love the sea urchin ring: pure, simple, meticulously executed depiction of natural beauty.

Love this. Simple, modern beauty reminiscent of the Michelin Man.

Betsy rocks my world. Prints galore in her shop, but this one is original.

I am falling in love with black and white photography all over again after a five-year separation. I think this is my favorite photographic print on Etsy right now: simple and beautiful and near perfect composition.

Saw this hanging on my business partner’s bathroom wall in her apartment and have been smitten with it ever since. Want to get inside this designer’s brain for an afternoon.

I’ve been attempting to draw bears lately but I can’t seem to capture what Tara has here. I have loved this print since the first time I saw it.

Simple and elegant bangles. Love that they are unstained. I’d leave ‘em that way, personally.

Can I have a sofa covered in this, please??

My tattoo artist gives free unicorn tattoos “for the cause of the unicorn.” I think she would like this print by Matty. I sure do.

Lions are the new owls.

I am in love with sarahblank’s print. Most definitely frame worthy.

Repurposed or refashioned? Not sure, but I love Petite Man Kitty, if for no other reasons than he’s freaky (good) and his name is Petite Man Kitty (also good).

We're such fans of Lisa's work, we sat down (virtually!) to do an interview and speak with her further about her work, her new projects and her experiences as an artist.

Can you give us the run down on Rare Device?

I got involved with Rare Device when I met Rena Tom about a year ago. She’d asked me to do an installation at the Brooklyn store, and we worked on that together for about six months. She was amazing to work with; it was uncanny how our visions for the show gelled. This past April when I visited NY for the actual opening, we met in person for the first time and continued to hit it off. She asked me to be her partner in a San Francisco store. I was so excited. We have very similar visions for the San Francisco store. It’s uncanny. We’ll carry what we call “design-led” merchandise. In other words, stuff that we think is beautifully designed—from clothing to accessories to home décor to art. We work on aspects of the shop together and I am learning so much about the business. We open in October, with a big party and an art installation by Kelly Lynn Jones, whose work Rena and I both admire immensely.
Do you think there's any similar skill overlap with being a curator and being a creator?

Definitely. I think my personal sense of beauty and design has been helpful in curating, but there is so much more to it than that. I have had to make lots of connections with many different artists—which is fun, but you also have to put yourself out there and promote the gallery. I am only good at sales when I really believe in something. And I think Rare Device is going to be an amazing place for artists to show work. I’ve also had to think about bringing people in who have different styles, maintaining variety, yet keeping the direction of the gallery focused. We are really focusing on mixing some established talent with very new emerging artists. Rena has a big influence on the gallery stuff too. She has a great eye. And, of course, there is the insane amount of organization required, keeping the calendar, getting press, planning for parties. It’s all relatively new for me, but I am really, really enjoying it. Being a curator was a “dream” job for me for a long time. Now I am doing it. Who knew?

You are mainly self-taught. Do you have any anecdotes about learning or being inspired by a friend or another in an unexpected way?

I don’t have any specific anecdotes, but I have to say that I am constantly learning from and inspired by others in unexpected ways. I am very lucky to have lots of formally trained artists as good friends—Diana Fayt, Lisa Solomon, Lorena Siminovich, Maria Vettese, Amy Ruppel, Jill Bliss, Mati McDonough, not to mention my six amazing studio mates, who are all highly trained artists—and they are such great teachers and supports to me. Each of them has taught me so much about the creative process: emotional stuff like dealing with “post opening show” breakdown and burnout; business stuff like pricing work and working with galleries and clients; technical stuff like materials and techniques and giving me feedback on my work. They are amazing. I do not know where I would be without them!

Have you ever lost one of the notebooks/sketchbooks that you carry around with you?  Was it sad or freeing or eye-opening in some way?

I have never lost one, fortunately, but I can’t even imagine what that would be like! What a terrible thought. They are very private. I can’t imagine someone getting their hands on one. I’d be kind of embarrassed!

Do you feel any tension between the gallery world and the shop/craft fair/marketplace world?

Sure I feel it, but not everywhere. It’s an unnecessary tension, I think. The way I see it, if you are a fine artist who is not in favor of selling your work on a place like Etsy or at Renegade for whatever reason, that’s fine. It’s not for everybody. But for lots of us who want to make our work accessible and are not worried about gallery exclusivity, and for whom the craft v. fine art distinction is not so clear, the craft marketplace is a perfect vehicle for us to sell our work. I do not feel diminished by being associated with the craft movement or marketplace. Actually, I would not be showing in galleries if I hadn’t started selling my work in the craft marketplace. It’s an amazing, positive community—and one that I think many fine art galleries now are tuning into to find emerging talent. Craft is the new art, really.

Do you have a good sense of who "your audience" is? How do you like to engage with them?

That’s an interesting question. I am pretty sure the majority of my audience is women between the ages of 25-40—women from my own generation. And that makes sense, since I much of my work has a certain femininity to it. All of that said, I have sold a lot of work to men and have befriended many men through our mutual admiration for each other’s work. When I make a piece, I don’t intentionally set out to engage my audience (male or female) in any particular way. I just get a vision and try to execute it. I am lucky because that vision appeals to people, and that people want to look at and buy my work and keep it in their homes. That’s why I make art. It’s about connecting with others through communicating my vision.

You mentioned on your blog that you want to live an inspired life. Do you think there are things people can do to encourage a curiosity about life in others around them?

Sure. First, I recommend getting a camera. Photography is the best way to become a creative, inspired, visual person if you are not one already. Go out at least once a week and just walk around—wherever you live—and photograph whatever compels you. There are interesting, inspiring things everywhere and we don’t even see them when we are not looking—in the suburbs, in the seediest parts of cities, in rural areas, at work, at home. Look up, look down, get close up to things. Look at the details. Develop or download your photos and share them with people. Second, look at other people’s art as often as you can. Look at books, go to museums, look at street art, visit galleries, join Flickr and look at other people’s photos. Third, start a collection. Attempting to find like things, whether it’s at the flea market or in the forest, will tune you into life around you in a way that you’ve never been tuned in before. The best way to get curious is to be curious.

If you were able to remake an everyday manufactured object in your life by hand, what would it be?

Oh lord. That’s a tough one for me. About 18 years ago when I was 21 I started playing around with paper mache, and I made bowls for all my friends and family for Christmas. I decoratively hand painted them and then varnished them. They were so incredibly ugly, but I was so proud of my artistic/utilitarian adventure with paper, flour and glue. And this was in 1990, so everything was sort of ugly and I got away with them as gifts. A couple people I know still have theirs, and they tease me about how far I have come since then. So I am not sure I would attempt that challenge again, frankly, even with my developed skills!