Respecting the inner-artist; living a life with imperfection, and letting go.
Bright colors and classic rock didn’t always fill Lisa P. Young’s days. She was once a corporate pharmaceutical representative with a big paycheck and a big expense account. Pantsuits and company board rooms, she had meetings to attend and clients to manage.
Then came 2003. Lisa lost six loved ones over the course of three years, including her husband at the time. She was also hit with three hurricanes; in her own words, “life didn’t have a lot of meaning, you know. Getting up and going to work just didn’t seem important anymore.”
The final blow came when she lost her best friend. Lisa resigned from Pfizer and took a road trip to California with her niece. Others thought she was “nuts”. She headed West to keep herself moving. Hiking in the mountains of California, she found herself crying and letting all of her emotions pour out. Lisa had a strong visual of her ‘maker’ at the end of her foreseeable life. There wasn’t anything about selling more Viagra or Lipitor, what she did hear was “you had the art, what did you do with that? Why didn’t you do something with that?”
Energized, she returned to Florida, set up a charitable foundation in her friends honor, and began to paint. Her initial abstract paintings had solemn tones…she was finding her way back to her art, and into herself.
Paintings started to sell, and with some advice from a fellow artist, she began to painting on large canvases. One of her abstract pieces caught her eye, she took a step back and giggled a bit, “you know what, those things kinda look like flamingos”. She added some details to the dripping paint marks on the canvas, and voilà, flamingos!
Lisa began to notice what she really loved. “I started looking around at all the stuff I was fascinated with, and it’s all driven by texture. That was so key. That’s what drives your art, it’s texture!”
She found the ‘key’ to her expression. Experiencing Lisa’s art and knowing her story fills the mind with wonder, “what colors, what texture, what expression do I have within myself?” With raised thick lines, scraps of paint, and vivid colors, Lisa’s life journey is felt profoundly.
“If you’d told me that when I quit my corporate job to be an artist and to live a life of meaning, and it was gonna be painting flamingos, I would have said you’re nuts.”
Lisa is living her profound perspective, and you can too.
If you’re looking to add more brightness to your day, check out lisapyoung.com
Watch a mini documentary I created about Lisa:
Listen to Lisa’s podcast episode here:
Love podcasts? Search Profound Perspective on the Apple Podcast app.
Or visit: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lisa-p-young-from-big-pharma-to-big-flamingos/id1461707624?i=1000436722406