lisiko

My name is Lisi and art has been in my nature since I was very young. I was lucky to have a mother who pushed my artistic ability at a young age. She hired a private art teacher for me when I was 10 who had me doing still life paintings at the local college. I even had a painting submitted to a museum when I was 11. I still have that painting and it reminds me of my passion for art that I have always had. As a young child I could never sit still or be quiet. Of course today I would have been diagnosed ADHD but then it was contributed to sugar (haha I ate a lot of that too!) . As a teenager that lack of being able to concentrate on things that weren't interesting to me turned out to be detrimental in my education till college.  When I went to college which was an art school in downtown LA my first semester I got straight A's. I remember exactly where I was when I opened the envelope and saw my grades. I cried from surprise and joy right there in the hallway. After completely being lost in high school I realized I could do it I just needed to find my passion. I studied interior design for a couple of years and did well but realized that there was a side that I didn't enjoy. While I was studying I also worked at Nordstrom where I soon realized that make up was my thing. I soon began working at MAC cosmetics where I realized that I could combine my love of make up with art. I worked there for four years and also did make up for fashion shoots on the side. I did make up till my children were young and then it became to difficult. I rekindled my love of knitting and crochet which was taught to me by my grandmother at a very young age. I again realized that I could put my creativity into creating things with fiber. I opened a knitting store called Stitch Cafe in my home in 2003 and then moved to a store a year later. The store was in Valley Village and it was an amazing community of such amazing talented people who I still keep in touch with till today. We had classes in every aspect of art from glass making, beading, weaving, spinning, dying yarn and many more. After 6 years I decided that I had enough of retail and we actually ended moving out of that area and so I sold the store and moved to the suburbs. My kids needed a good high school so we moved to Oak Park, CA. I found an art teacher in Malibu and I started oil painting after not doing it for many years. I was happy to be creating again with paint and finished many beautiful paintings. I have always been an avid gardener and even did it when we lived in a one bedroom apartment with a small balcony. It was always filled with plants. When I moved to Oak Park I was able to start designing my first garden. We stayed there for 8 years and when we moved to Santa Rosa Valley it was then that I got my first real experience of  designing and implementing a real garden from start to finish. I was ready for the challenge. We bought a house with an acre flat with an incredible view. The property had been a flip and they did nothing on any of the exterior and that was what I wanted a blank canvas of space to design. Of course that project was done within a month of us moving in and it has been a continual project for that last five years. I became a master gardener in 2019 and was very happy to be surrounded by like minded gardeners. I find myself outside for at least a couple of hours everyday. While here I also started to focus on quilting which is currently my art form of choice. I have created many modern quilts, some my own design and some from patterns. It is a great hobby because people always love a quilt as a gift. I've been so fortunate to have the life I have thanks to my husband, Doron who always supports my hobbies. We will be married 30 years soon and it's been an amazing road. We have two wonderful guys who we are very proud of. Here's to many more years creating and traveling.