CITIZEN LOVES: Lindsay Rickman

CITIZEN LOVES: Lindsay Rickman, artist

I met Lindsay randomly at a coffee shop a little over 2 years ago.
She was dazzling in some brightly colored costume (A candy colored printed short-shorts romper)
and coordinating duffle bag that she had whipped up herself. She looked like a blazing blonde Harajuku doll. She was sweet a pie. We ended up having her join our table, talked for over an hour, and eventually exchanged phone numbers. That chance meeting sparked a friendship as well as a working relationship.   Lindsay is a common feature on this blog + it's with great pleasure to interview and share Lindsay with you, in her own (very charming) words.                                          -Bella Q

THE CITIZEN: What's your name + what do you do?

LINDSAY RICKMAN: My name is Lindsay Rickman. Some design labels I've tried out in the past: Sarcodine, lindsaylindsay23, and a new one that I'm excited about, Baby Jesus Takes a Ride into the Eye of the Psychic Mind. I've thought a lot over the past ten years about whether or not to use my name as a tag name, and I always come back to feeling more comfortable using something different. Maybe it's like to having a stage name, being able to step-back a bit from the work, or the projects.

CITIZEN: How would you describe yourself?

LINDSAY RICKMAN: I'm a small, fragile little beast with teeth and claws, that tries to be good, and do good.

THE CITIZEN: As a textile artist, how much influence do fashion trends have on your art?

LINDSAY RICKMAN: What's in the larger social sphere does have influence on me. When I started out, I was working with all black, grey and purple fabrics- that was in the early nineties. I was making capes, black stretch pants, and long, flowing skirts. Anne Rice's novels and Bauhaus (the band) were popular with my friends. The past few years I'd been into whatever I can get my hands on that's fresh, and using a lot of bright colors, lots of neon, mixed with colors like mustard yellow or brown with avocado green. I want to take old, discarded fabrics and materials like polyester, vinyl, silk, wool, any thing that's different- interesting prints and colors, and mix them up in different combinations. What pleases me is to make something exciting, something new. I'm not trying to be original, just new; there IS a difference between the two, isn't there?

What came out of my fabric re-working, was a modern sort of crazy-quilt style spandex, with which I turned into leggings, bodysuits, bags, sculptures and "rag" dolls. I got into making my own striped material, big time, more than I ever have, and have been making a lot of things out of that. It doesn't bother me at all that everyone is wearing stripes and that stripes are everywhere right now. I say, more stripes, please! I want stripes on stripes, on stripes. When I was in London, about seven years back, I came across this book, The Devil's Cloth, and it spurred me on to keep close to stripes, without questioning why; in this book I'd found the answers. (Editor's Note: The Devil Cloth chronicles the history of stripes in which medieval Europe relegated stripes to those on the margins or outside the social order.)

 "I'm a a small, fragile little beast with teeth and claws, that tries to be good, and do good."

Right now I've got a momentarily release from the stripes, and am presently making a lot of 3x3" triangle patchwork. I'm telling you, triangles are HOT right now. I started dreaming of the All Seeing Eye last year, and then soon after, I noticed that All-Seeing-Eyes are EVERYWHERE, not just on our dollar bills. I'm also making patchwork fabric in the shape of cloth dinosaur scales,  you can see some examples of my work in the hooded capes I'm making for the upcoming Bows &Arrows Hooded Cape Show.

Working a little over a year at Thunderhorse Vintage, with Marilyn Ayers, has fed me creatively in a lot of ways. People have always labeled me a punk, I guess because of my different looks over the years, and I've always been friends with punks, but me myself, besides the older mainstream British stuff, I knew next to nil about the music. So, being invited to shows in her basement, and to underground shows in SF, I  couldn't help but get sucked in, in a very good way. I mean, before all of this, I was totally dismissive of the Ramones, now I'm thinking: what the heck was I thinking? I was missing OUT! Now I'm foaming at the mouth, wanting to know everything about the SF/LA scenes between 1978 & 1984... EVERYTHING. Sorry to go on and on, but I guess my point is, who knows what I might create next out of being fed by all of that?

THE CITIZEN: Where can we find you?

LINDSAY RICKMAN: Occasionally, I'll send out personal invitations for studio drop-bys, but I work best alone, and will probably never share my workspace, no matter how large the space. That said, I enjoy the occasional visitor-  I like to be a good hostess. I won't say where to find me just that, if you know where to find me, then you know where to find me!

THE CITIZEN: How about online? Or real life?

LINDSAY RICKMAN: Facebook is a good place. I've also been spending time with my Model Mayhem site, as I do art/photography modelling on the side. It's good work, it pays well and doesn't compete with my creative flow. My next chore is to load up my Etsy shop, it's been badly neglected and I've got loads of items to sell!

Where to find me in real life? Um, see the above answer.

THE CITIZEN: What advice would you offer young up-and-coming artists and fashion designers?

LINDSAY RICKMAN: Don't compete so much as cooperate. Positive competition is fine, by that I mean, build each other up, don't tear each other down. Project Runway is so weird/perverted to me. I come from abundance mentality, not a scarcity mentality.

If your work is your passion, more than making money or having a husband or a wife, then create a space for it, whether it's a room in a house, or a studio or office, or a touring van! Create a space for it and guard it with your life. Having mentioned abundance mentality, passion, money, husbands and wives, I do believe it is possible to be in line with all of these at once, but for me there's been a lot of obstacles.

Being a human being is not always an easy trip, especially not in the year 2thousand -what-ever. It's a balancing act, and I check in constantly, by keeping a journal, writing three pages plus a day, finding that I've got to cut myself some slack here, and tighten up there. My family is a treasure. I didn't appreciate how important family was when I was younger, but that's ok, because I probably wouldn't have ventured far from home and lived the experiences that I needed. If, by chance, your family seems to be more against, than for, what you do, resolve yourself to be that much stronger in your own self, and god bless you for it.

You can keep up with Lindsay on her Facebook fan page: facebook.com/lindsayrickmanartist and see her design prowess in action this  Saturday, February 17th at Bows + Arrows. For more info on the Bows + Arrows Hooded Cape Show, click HERE.

Lindsay Rickman photos by Bella Q

Dress and location, courtesy of FRINGE