(bright music) (bright music continues) - I always drew a lot.

When you're that kid, you're like, "Oh well, Liza can draw."

I just was, "I draw."

(bright music) My name's Liza Mana Burns, and I'm an illustrator and a muralist.

The art I did as a kid and the art I did, even in college and as a teenager, it was all storytelling.

I would draw characters, I would draw out scenes from books, and I would draw cartoons, graphic novels, like fables or Graeme Base.

His illustrations are so packed full.

It's really dense and you can spend a lot of time looking at it and the story gets clearer the more you look at it.

So that's what I want people to do.

If you drive by it, it looks cool, but if you are walking by it and you have the time to find the story in that.

Garter snakes are everywhere.

I just have so much fun doing that so that's what I want other people to do.

It's fun, it's a treat.

I grew up here, I moved away when I was 18 to go to Boston University for college and then moved back here in 2013 to get my associates in graphic design.

Graphic design is a more formal communication to me, so it's like there's a thing I need them to do, like buy something or understand something.

But then right before the pandemic and right before I had my first kid, I launched freelance.

I was trying to do more of the stuff I loved and less of the graphic design.

Even though I like it, it's just not my passion.

An illustration, it's pure storytelling to me.

I can tell sort of a wilder story.

I can tell something more magical.

I can take my time.

(upbeat music) My work is really like a love letter to Oregon.

A lot of it is.

It's for Oregonians and people that live here and have been here for a while and know this place.

You know the camping spots, I recognize that, I did that as a kid.

I recognize that building.

I love it when people feel some kind of ownership over my work.

Take some of this.

Very scientific way of picking colors.

Sort of finger painting.

Eh, that's pretty good.

I'm using the iPad just to sort of give myself a reminder of where things are and what I want to paint.

This is a background layer that all the pen work will sit on top of.

So just want color and texture and coverage, and that's all I really need from the base layer.

(bright music) It is a piece for a tech company in Portland.

I asked the owner who commissioned me, I said, "Can you go out to your rank and file and ask them to send you images that were meaningful for them?"

Ask and you shall receive.

When you ask tech nerds to send you images, they send you everything.

I got sent lines of code, super wide range of stuff, which is so much fun.

There's a lot in Eugene.

I kind of get surprised when I'm driving around.

I'll get to be like, "Oh, that's me and that's me.

And I designed that and that's me," which is fun.

The Kiva has a lot of my art.

I think I came up with the idea of like, "Ooh, it's like a big bounty of things just exploding out of a bag."

They turned out so well.

I loved these!

For the Oregon Cultural Trust Celebrate Oregon piece, they did like an open call, a call for artists.

And so I submitted and got the job, and it was life changing.

It started out as like just, "Hey, design the license plate," but because my work is what it is, it's crazy detailed and there's lots of little small parts, I think a lot of people that saw it were like, "Wouldn't that be cool if it was big?"

And I was like, "Yes, you should hire me to paint it big."

- [Airport Announcer] Attention southwest passengers, Continental flight 1794 with services to San Jose and continuing on to Burbank."

- Tapestry with all of these symbols that depict all the different kinds of arts and heritage in 127 symbols.

I have to tell you, every time somebody views this artwork, they find a symbol that they feel a connection with.

It not only tells the story of Oregon, but it tells the story of Oregonians.

- They made it a float at the Rose Parade in Portland.

So I got to go see my art made out of flowers and then I got to ride on it in the parade.

It was the coolest, weirdest experience.

I've gotten a lot of pinch myself moments out of this, and it's just really fun.

Oh, hey, you want to come say hi?

- Hi.

(Liza laughs) - [Liza] The nice thing about being a freelance artist, this is one of the biggest nice things, is that I get to be home with my kids and I'm not working nine to five, but it also means that I've turned down jobs because they would either take me away from home for too long or they would just take up too much time and I couldn't commit.

And I'm really lucky, I have tons of support.

- Thank you, that's good sharing, good job.

- The idea that you could have a full-time artistic career and be a parent who's there for your kids, that's a really hard needle to thread.

Okay, thanks, honey.

- You know, you, just your style... - Thank you.

- You've got the style.

(uplifting acoustic guitar music) - [Liza] The show is called "You and Me," and it started as a fun little thing for my husband.

I realized that we had this kind of like shared memory bank.

It's a little embarrassing, 'cause it's very revealing.

- [Patron] Oh my.

- [Liza] It's pretty intimate, but it's a story, and I like sharing that.

- It's been great to realize her dream, to have it in here, mine to be able to support her and her artistry, and then to see the collection that she actually put on exhibition, a real life story.

And you're engaged in glimpses, moments that she's been able to portray.

It's a very touching thing to really capture the essence and the emotion within a moment.

- I'm hoping they find their own thing in it.

Like, "Oh, I remember that when I was in the hospital with my kid," that it feels like it speaks to them or they recognize it and find themselves in it.

I love that, it makes me feel good.

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