Arranging the Rainbow by Lisa Congdon
11"x11" ($60)
Jen here to light up your inbox with a very special BRIGHT Friday release that will do good for your walls *and* the world. Lisa Congdon’s Arranging the Rainbow is an 11”x11” photo that’s available for a limited time only—you’ve got till next Tuesday, November 27th to purchase it—and $10 from each print sold will be donated to Brave Trails, an innovative summer camp for LGBTQ youth that Lisa’s been working with for a while now.
Arranging the Rainbow is a carefully composed array of seemingly mundane bits and bobs—erasers, bread bag tags, pencil sharpeners—transformed into a delightful piece of eye candy thanks to Lisa’s deft ability to coax brilliance out of the ordinary. Part of her ongoing Collections series, Lisa built this piece from her ever-growing (and already vast!) collection of collections. If you’re like me, these are the sorts of items that usually end up in a hopelessly jumbled, overfull junk drawer that’s more of a guilt trip than a font of inspiration. Not Lisa though! Artistic abilities aside, Lisa also happens to be one of the most organized people I’ve ever met, so all these aforementioned bits and bobs are obsessively organized, resulting in a sort of next-level palette that goes beyond mere color to include shape and dimension as well.
And speaking of coaxing out brilliance, let me tell you more about Brave Trails, the ground-breaking organization you’ll be supporting when you purchase this print. They run summer camps for LGBTQ youth in Los Angeles and Maryland, with the specific goal of empowering the next generation of leaders, and helping them develop the skills they’ll need to be great ones. It’s such an incredible vision, and a timely one too.
Being a teenager is hard, y’all. And being an LGBTQ teen comes with many added layers of vulnerability, especially these days, when anti-LGBTQ sentiment is being stoked at a level I’ve never seen in my own lifetime. I have no doubt that Brave Trails is changing lives via their work, and that the campers they’re nurturing will go on to change many more lives themselves. Lisa recently started doing pro bono work with them and has had nothing but glowing things to say about its founders and its mission. She even said she might go work with campers herself this summer, helping them realize rainbow arrangements of their very own! I’m absolutely thrilled that we have this opportunity to support them.
I’d also be remiss if I signed off without mentioning why we’ve opted to release a benefit edition that’s specifically NOT eligible for discounts on today of all days. First off, let me reassure you: there is plenty of discount goodness in store for our collectors on Cyber Monday. We know that sales are important, and for some folks it’s really the only time they can make purchases from us. Still, discounting is hard for us and always has been. We're a small, independent business, and almost everything we sell is made right here in the US by amazing artists and artisans, and we are absolutely uncompromising when it comes to quality and materials. Our whole founding premise was (and is!) to offer amazing, high-quality art and ridiculously affordable prices, so in a sense, the deal is baked in to our everyday prices.
The other thing is that it’s always bugged me that Giving Tuesday falls after the now four day long orgy of deals and discounts, only hitting up people to think charitably at a point when their bank balance is likely to be at its lowest. So today’s release is meant to be a light against the dark and an investment in a brighter future.
All of which is to say: I hope that lots of you will snap up Arranging the Rainbow today to live good and do good, and while you’re at it, maybe pat yourself on the back for opting to have a Bright Friday rather than—or in addition to—a Black one.
With art for everyone,
Jen Bekman
