Lisa studied at PNCA in Portland, Oregon for 3 years majoring in graphic design. In 1982 she moved to Los Angeles to attend Otis Parsons School of Design and graduated with a BFA in fashion design in 1985. After graduating she worked for 3 years as a fashion designer in LA at several companies. Lisa left the business to become a full-time mother and over the next 30 years, for the most part, put her artistic abilities and desires on hold. It was during these decades that she realized what she was truly drawn to wanting to do was paint and was greatly inspired by the abstract expressionists Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. In 1989 Lisa and her husband, Devon, moved back to Lake Oswego where they still reside. Biography: I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be an artist. I’ve always been surrounded by artists; my mom was a painter, my parents collected art, and my husband and all 4 of my children are practicing artists in all different mediums. I have a BFA in fashion, but made the decision to put my artistic desires to the side while I raised my family. During those years I was always thinking about art and what I truly wanted to do and what always came to mind was painting. Even though I had no formal training, I decided at the close of 2020 I had to get brave and pursue what spoke to my heart, which was abstract painting. Starting a new career at 60 was daunting, but I knew it was time to jump in. I feel like my paintings are the result of 30 years of pent-up creative energy that waited a very long time to be expressed. I live in a black and white world; I tend to only wear black and white. My house is black and white and neutrals. Yet when I paint it’s all about vibrancy and color. Emotions must manifest themselves through color because my paintings are all about expressing my inner-most feelings onto the canvas.I paint large-scale, colorful, emotion-based abstract paintings. While painting, I am very immersed in my feelings and let those emotions dictate the color and composition. For me, painting is the way I can express myself in a way that words cannot.