{"id":38294,"date":"2025-08-01T02:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T02:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/38294\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T02:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T02:06:09","slug":"lisa-congdon-translates-the-healing-power-of-making-from-collage-to-painting-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/38294\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Congdon Translates the Healing Power of Making from Collage to Painting \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Late last year, as she was recovering from two knee replacements, <a href=\"https:\/\/lisacongdon.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Lisa Congdon<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/tags\/lisa-congdon\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">previously<\/a>) was unable to commute to her Portland studio. Typically an avid biker, the artist found the recovery process difficult both physically and emotionally, and she began to work in a sketchbook as a way to cope and create while home. Images cut and collaged with paper filled the pages and soon became the basis for a new body of work.<\/p>\n<p>The Way Through, on view at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stephaniechefas.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Chefas Projects<\/a>, presents 40 paintings that emerge from this period. Translating the distinctive scissor cuts to wood panel, Congdon captures the irregularities of the original paper pieces. \u201cUltimately, I recognized that the collection of collages was a sort of magic and decided to see what new work could be created based on their wonky, improvisational, pure form,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1210\" height=\"1590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/congdon-6.jpg\" alt=\"a painting of a blue bowl of oranges on a yellow and pink backdrop\" class=\"wp-image-459656\"  \/>\u201cTangerines,\u201d acrylic on wood framed in hemlock, 12 \u00d7 9 inches<\/p>\n<p>The result is a collection of vibrant works that often feature singular objects: a blue bowl of tangerines, for example, or a thumbtack and bottle of Elmer\u2019s glue. In each piece, Congdon transforms the mundane into a bright, colorful object of reverence and play.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the paintings, The Way Through includes a collection of limited-edition serigraphs with the artist\u2019s signature bold style and affirmations. If you\u2019re in Portland, stop by to see the exhibition through August 16.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1510\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/congdon-2.jpg\" alt=\"a painting of a yellow and a blue boot on a red and black background\" class=\"wp-image-459652\"  \/>\u201cOutre,\u201d acrylic on wood panel framed in hemlock, 24 \u00d7 18 inches<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1318\" height=\"783\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/congdon-3.jpg\" alt=\"a collection of paintings on a white wall featuring a bottle of elmer's glue, a red pushpin, a yellow pencil, and a red rotary phone\" class=\"wp-image-459653\"  \/>Installation view of \u2018The Way Through\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1645\" height=\"1594\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/congdon-5.jpg\" alt=\"a diptych of a house and a tree\" class=\"wp-image-459655\"  \/>Installation view of \u2018The Way Through\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1447\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/congdon-7.jpg\" alt=\"a colorful abstract painting on a white wall\" class=\"wp-image-459657\"  \/>\u201cSouvenirs,\u201d acrylic on wood framed in hemlock, 20 \u00d7 16 inches<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1264\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/congdon-1.jpg\" alt=\"colorful works on white walls in a warehouse-style gallery\" class=\"wp-image-459651\"  \/>Installation view of \u2018The Way Through\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thisiscolossal.com\/members\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"118516\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossal Member<\/a> now, and support independent arts publishing.<\/p>\n<p>Hide advertising<\/p>\n<p>Save your favorite articles<\/p>\n<p>Get 15% off in the <a href=\"https:\/\/colossal.shop\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colossal Shop<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Receive members-only newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late last year, as she was recovering from two knee replacements, Lisa Congdon (previously) was unable to commute&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,27894,356,75,27895,5418],"class_list":{"0":"post-38294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-collage","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-lisa-congdon","17":"tag-painting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}