Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey Howard.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Lindsey. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My name is Lindsey Howard, more often I go by Lou. I’m a ceramic sculptor and fiber artist. I grew up in McKinney, TX and had been working in a studio in East Dallas for the past year until I recently relocated to Brooklyn, NY. I graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a BA in Art History in 2018. It was there I was introduced to ceramics and have been working with clay ever since. My passions include platform Crocs, spaghetti, and telling people Gemini’s aren’t as bad as everyone thinks they are.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ceramics is a tricky medium. It has taught me a lot of patience, not just from the challenges of the clay itself, but the difficulties of a medium that require a studio – clay needs a kiln to fire in and a ventilated space to make sure you’re not inhaling silica or toxins. It was different from any medium I’d worked in before. When I graduated and left school, I had just moved to Massachusetts for an internship at MASS MoCA and didn’t have the means to pay for a studio or kiln to rent from. I bought a bag of clay to start sculpting within my room. I had no idea if the work I was making there would ever get fired or if I would just have to toss it. I started having some pretty serious health issues (important to note non-clay related health issues!), which prompted my move back to Dallas and really inspired a lot of the work I’m creating now. I was sidelined from making work from the first couple months I moved back here, but finally got better and joined a community studio that had just opened up in East Dallas. It was going great, then, of course, Shelter-in-Place was issued and the studio closed temporarily – I was at a loss again.
Like a lot of artists, I had exhibitions postponed and projects canceled. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to work with clay for months. There’s been a great community of support from artists during this time. I think we were all in the same boat and nervous about what the future of our practice would look like. It was during quarantine that I learned about rug making and reached out to Niki Dionne, another Dallas based artist, to learn more about the craft. With the studio closed, I invested in the equipment for rug making and started practicing a new medium – I’ve loved it so far. Once I was able to get my hands on a bag of clay again in May, I started sculpting safely from home and it’s been ceramics and rug making since. I’m grateful I continuously find my way back to creating. I think it’s important for artists to know even if we don’t have the perfect studio situations, materials, or are temporarily pulled away for reasons outside our control, like our health or a pandemic, that doesn’t change the core of who we are as artists.
We’d love to hear more about your art.
My work explores consumption, sustainability and consumer ethics through satirized portraits of food. I’m interested in capturing the ways we consume and how internet culture impacts material and food consumption. I’m inspired by cursed food images, kitsch decor, and other food artists that preceded me like Oldenberg’s soft food sculptures. Recently I’ve been tracking the ways in which social media has revolutionized the food industry into finding the most ostentatious presentations of food. The other day I saw a video on a new restaurant where they wrap an entire pizza up as a burrito. That’s what I’m fascinated in- the way we don’t think twice about finding grand displays of food that no one really wants to eat, but makes for a good story. More specifically, I’m interested in the effects of this, thinking about the sustainability and ethics of that kind of food model. My work satirizes ideas of this, but the actual food industry keeps finding ways to outdo me.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My fondest career moment is probably an exhibition opening I had this past January in New York. I had a sculpture in a group show and had a lot of friends come and travel to the opening, which meant so much. I wouldn’t be where I am without my friends – they’re huge supporters of me and my work. I’m grateful to have had so many of them that could attend and to have had the opportunity to celebrate with them. It was a very heartwarming and mushy moment. The combination of excitement and pride on their face is what makes it my fondest moment, which seems a little backward but seeing them so proud of me made me proud of me if that makes any sense. Especially thinking back on it in the middle of a pandemic, I’m not sure when we’ll get the chance to have an exhibition opening again to that capacity, I definitely hold the memory close until we have the opportunity to safely see each other again.
Contact Info:
- Website: lindseyhoward.space
- Email: lemmonloou@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lemmonlou/
Image Credit:
Caleb Clark, Izaac Costiniano, Justin Jantz, Lindsey Howard
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