If you walk along the streets of Eugene, Oregon, chances are you’ll stumble across one of painter and illustrator Liza Mana Burns’ many striking murals adorning some of the city’s buildings, including the Kiva Grocery store.
Burns says she’s always surprised whenever she sees her artwork around town.
“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,” she said.
Burns, who grew up in Eugene, said her art combines abstract representations of Oregon’s natural landscapes with intricate icons of Oregon’s history.
Eugene artist Liza Mana Burns sits next to a digital version of her "Celebrate Oregon!" mural. Burns designed "Celebrate Oregon!" as a special edition license plate, and recreated the piece into four large murals.
Steven Tonthat / OPB
The result is a colorful tapestry that serves as a love letter to the state.
“It’s for Oregonians and people that live here and have been here for a while and know this place because it rewards that. If you’ve lived here for a while and the camping spots are out Highway 58, you recognize that and go, ‘Oh, I know that. I recognize that I did that as a kid. I know that specific park. I recognize that building!’” she said.
Using her inspiration from her favorite artists Graeme Base and Steven Kellogg, Burns melds her love of storytelling and cartoons to create works of art wholly unique to her style.
“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 and I would draw out scenes from books and I would draw cartoons,” she said.
For Burns, it’s not enough to simply look at the mural from afar — the real magic happens when people stop and look up close.
“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, I just have so much fun doing that,” she said.
Eugene artist Liza Mana Burns paints a mural in her home studio. Burns' work combines Oregon's stunning landscapes with small icons of the state's history.
Steven Tonthat / OPB
One might find little icons like Sasquatch, or the St. Johns Bridge, or the Nike logo. Little details like those, she says, bring her pieces to life and help give them a sense of home and familiarity.
“I love it when people feel some kind of ownership over my work that it feels like it speaks to them or they recognize it and find themselves in it,” she said.
In 2020, Burns decided to commit to her art full-time and became a freelance artist. Eventually, her hard work paid off when she landed her most life-changing project — designing the new special edition license plate for the Oregon Cultural Trust.
The piece, titled “Celebrate Oregon!” depicts the Oregon landscape in bright blues and oranges. But just like with her previous mural work, one has to look a little closer to really appreciate the piece.
Her piece became so popular as a license plate that the OCT commissioned her to create four large mural versions to be placed in various airports, including Portland International Airport and Eugene Airport.
“Because my work is 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!”
Carrie Kikel, communications manager for the Oregon Cultural Trust, worked with Burns to get her project out into the world. She was impressed with the care that Burns took in researching the history of the state and incorporating those little elements into the final piece.
“The way she thought it through and then used the landscape of Oregon as the basis for this incredible tapestry with all of these symbols that depict all the different kinds of arts and heritage, we need things that bring people together right now and that’s one of the very special things about this artwork,” she said.
As for Burns, seeing the responses to her artwork has been overwhelming in a positive way.
“They made it a float at the Rose Parade in Portland. So I gotta 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,” she said.
Eugene artist Liza Mana Burns spends quality time with her husband Zane Hager and her two children Henry, right, and Tommy, in her Eugene studio. Burns became a freelance artist so that she could spend more time with her children.
Steven Tonthat / OPB
Being a full-time artist has its advantages, but for Burns, perhaps the most important is the ability to spend time with her young children.
“The nice thing about being a freelance artist is that I get to be home with my kids and I’m not working nine-to-five.” she said.
“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 to that amount of time.”
But despite the challenges, Burns continues to create meaningful work that resonates with so many people, and ultimately, she wants people to have fun looking at her work.
“My work is fun and I hope they spend time with it and I hope they come back to it. With all super detailed work, I’m hoping they find their own thing in it …. I hope they find the story in it and I hope they come back.”
