We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lindsey Guile. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lindsey below.

Lindsey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Unlike many people who know they want to be an artist from a young age my foray into the visual arts didn’t start until I was in college. I tested out of a basic computer course and needed a last minute elective and the only course open that would fit my schedule was an art appreciation class. From there I went on to get my BFA, MA, and MFA in Painting & Drawing. It probably wasn’t until I was in my MFA that I really discovered my voice as an artist though. As a lover of classical approaches to art-making there was always a struggle in how to make my practice contemporary. It wasn’t until I started to explore the roots of my own body image and revealing personal struggles with disordered eating that I realized I could tell the story of femininity, the effect of patriarchal beauty standards, and of learning to accept ones self for many others.

Lindsey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a fat positive and body liberationist feminist artist who explores femininity and body image through the creation of larger-than-life charcoal drawings. I work with volunteer models one-on-one and we talk about the experiences in their life that have shaped their body and self image and as we talk I take reference photos for my drawings. Each person who models for me chooses their state of dress (or undress), and everything is done with the explicit consent of the individual. If I am asked to not photograph a part of someone’s body their wishes are respected.

When I am ready to draw I go through what is usually 200-300 photos and look for a reference that most represents the feeling of our session. This part of the process relies a lot on what kind of emotions hit me so that I can translate that to the future audience. People often ask how long a drawing takes, and I couldn’t tell you because I usually work on three at a time in my home studio. One of my most recent pieces, Unwavered, has taken the longest–probably somewhere around 60 hours if I was to guess as the model has a significant amount of tattoos.

For the large pieces I work in compressed charcoal as it has always felt like a medium that could express the most subtle and minute emotions in one area but that could be bold and loud in another. In photographing the models I am always very conscious of the way lighting is going to aid in the drawing process, and am very influenced by a Women in Early Cinema class I took in undergrad. I was very moved by the cinematography in early black and white films and how so much could be done without the use of color.

Im incredibly proud that through my work I can give voices to those I draw, but also to folks who see my work and are moved by it. A hope of mine is that perhaps a viewer sees a piece and sees themselves in the work and perhaps it leads them to being kinder next time they look in the mirror. Im also seeking to normalize the amazing diversity of the body while also challenging very toxic cultural norms, especially when it comes to femininity.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The most difficult lesson I had to learn was divesting from diet culture and taking radical steps to address my own fatphobia, especially towards myself. My entire life I felt out of place. I never fit a narrative of what is “beautiful” by contemporary standards. I am just shy of 6′ tall and even at the height of my disordered eating I was still plus-sized. Most of my teen and adult life had dieting right at the center of it, so to not only completely change my mindset but then make this the center of my creative aspirations was A LOT. It has also been incredibly rewarding. When you create pieces about real stories, real vulnerabilities, you too have to be in that space in order for everything that results to be genuine. When I am working on a particular drawing I know I am telling the model’s story-the uplifting, the heartbreaking, as well as feeling their pain, joy, frustration, peace, turmoil, and everything in between. It is an honor to be able to be the creator of these pieces, but its also a big responsibility and I couldn’t do this if I hadn’t started doing the work years ago (it is forever on-going).

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I owe so much credit to the folks who work within the body liberationist community. In particular these following books have been key to my artistic practice as well as my personal healing. Here are just a few:

‘The Body is Not an Apology’ by Sonya Renee Taylor
‘Hunger’ by Roxane Gay
‘Fat Talk’ by Virginia Sole-Smith
‘Unbearable Weight’ by Susan Bordo
‘Shrill’ by Lindy West
‘More Than a Body’ by Lindsay and Lexie Kite

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lindseyguile.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/lindseyguilestudio

Image Credits
The photograph of me with my drawings was taken by Carl Grauer. The rest of the art work photos were taken by me.