I discovered Einstein when I was a teenager. I had a shirt that portrayed in vivid colors a crazy fun portrait of his wild hair and face. The shirt said, “Get Smart, Make Art” and “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” It struck a chord in my heart about what it means to be a thinker and an artist.

As a thinker, scientist and artist, knowledge is obviously very important, but the way we arrive at new ideas, new understandings of the world is to take that knowledge, deconstruct it, reconstruct it, create theories and principles that help us understand and explain the world around us. Einstein became a sort of icon for that risk taking scientist, philosopher, and artist in my mind. He was a complicated person and far more interesting than this over simplified caricature but the simple idea of attaining knowledge as a springboard for creativity was a life changing for me.

When I went to college, I studied the Great Books of the Western Civilization at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I worked in the college bookstore my first year there as my work study job. I was so very excited to find a very old print hanging on the wall near the back of the store with Einstein riding a bike. I fell in love with it. I photocopied it and taped it on my dorm room wall. (I later found a huge poster of it and it currently hangs in my office.) I loved it because this amazing mind who made enormous contributions to our scientific understanding of the world is smiling and simply riding a bike, and that gleeful moment was captured on film. The image captured the playfulness of this accomplished and serious thinker.  It is a good reminder not to take yourself so seriously all the time. Play is valuable too.

Painting on the left was created by my dad, Bill Lillibridge, of Bill’s Bot Shop.
Image of the print on the right is a photograph of Albert Einstein riding his bicycle in Santa Barbara.

A ravenous hunger for acquiring knowledge and life experience was my motivation for going to St. John’s. I knew I wanted to be an artist, but at the young age of 17, I knew I had so much to learn.

I wanted to be a film editor. During my high school years I learned how to video edit with Video 8, Super 8, and later did an internship at the New Mexico State University where I got to learn how to edit Beta, complete with histograms, and a full room editing suite. I participated in improv programs, theater, tech theater, photographed images for the yearbook and journalism classes and spent many hours in the high school’s dark room and video editing bay. I also had the fortune of finding an amazing teacher, Rosemary Kirby, who ignited a fire in me to ask questions, think creatively and critically, and taught me that there was so much more to the world than I knew. My high school experience helped me find my passion. I wanted to communicate, to make beautiful art. But what would I say?

Self portraits taken in 1996.

Portrait of Lisa taken by her brother in 1995.

I was humbled by my time at St. John’s. Each person gets one lifetime to seek, dream, learn and achieve. I rode a ride of philosophic thought that covered vast amounts of time and subjects. My mind was opened to concepts I never knew existed. I learned to be comfortable with uncertainty, fallibility and humility. Each of the amazing minds I encountered were later challenged by another thinker of the time, or a time that followed. Conversations of human intellect and thought took place over generations of people. These philosophers, theologians, mathematicians, authors, scientists and composers took crazy risks, put themselves out there, and made a mark on our world. It took me a long time after that to really feel like I had anything important to say. How does one stand up and wave into the universe with confidence about what they have to say when so many great minds have already done so? It felt audacious. The idea was terrifying.

In the years since college, I’ve worked a corporate job as a writer and editor, gotten married, become a business owner, a professional photographer and mother. I’ve decided I didn’t need to compete with those brilliant minds, but only be inspired by them. I can take what I know, question it, reinvent it and make my own art, and my own story.

I take these life experiences and apply them to all aspects of my life. For my art, I am so delighted by the body of work I’ve had the opportunity to create for my clients over the years. When I look back I know that I have captured lifelong art for them to enjoy and remember. Life is so preciously long, but so very fleeting. I capture playfullness, relationships, expressions, quickly changing baby faces, and beautifully life weathered skin. It is all so beautiful.

In my own life, there are so many wonderful photos that I embrace as beautiful remembrances of the life I’ve led, the people I’ve loved and the memories we’ve shared. I am so happy to be able to provide that gift to others. I am inspired by the people I meet and the stories I help them share through beautiful imagery.

I’ve used my veracious need to know and applied that to mastering photography, building a business and connecting with people. I know every photographer says they love their job, and I am no different. But I feel like this career of mine was inevitable it was a culmination of all of my experiences and as I reflect on the art I’ve created I feel fulfilled and proud to know I’m doing the very thing I was meant to do.