We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ellen Lindner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ellen below.
Ellen , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Lost Diamonds: A History of Gender Rebellion in American Baseball, my current project, has been meaningful to me because I have learned so much doing it. I was a lifelong baseball fan but completely ignorant about gender politics within the sport. Some quick examples of the blind spots in my knowledge: did you know that the New York Mets franchise was started by a woman? Even though I am a Mets fan, I did not. Did you know that Black women were among the first paid female-presenting baseball players, and by extension some of the first paid female-presenting athletes? Did you know that women have played baseball as long as the sport has existed? I didn’t, before starting this project, and uncovering these stories has enriched my understanding of this sport, and of American culture, immensely.
Ellen , 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 cartoonist, illustrator, educator and editor living in Upper Manhattan.
What am I most proud of? I have created comics for the Museum of Modern Art, Medium.com, The Washington Post, World War III Illustrated, and many anthologies and collections, including The Strumpet, Nelson, Pandemix and American Cult. I am the author of the graphic novels Undertow and The Black Feather Falls (both published by Soaring Penguin), and was the artist for Turning Points: Little Rock Nine (Aladdin/Simon and Schuster).
I’m currently working on Lost Diamonds, a MoCCA Award of Excellence-winning comic about gender and baseball.
My illustration clients have included Ray-Ban, SONY Playstation, Dotdash Meredith, Z2, Workman, Bloomsbury, Ernest and Julio Gallo Wines, and the City of New York. I’m proudest as an illustrator when friends recommend me for work – it shows that they have a confidence in me that I myself sometimes lack!
I deeply believe that artists can make an impression when no one else can. My activist art is in the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian, and I have won two LMCC Creative Engagement grants for my work in comics education.
In my spare time, I love biking and sewing, along with playing softball through the long, unbearably hot NYC summers. I started playing softball again as an adult after a thirty year break. While it’s been an uphill struggle it doesn’t let me slouch on my fitness (something which is all too easy to do as a busy artist), and I’ve met so many incredible people through my women’s plus league – everyone from a welder to the conservator of a historic cemetery to the person in charge of collecting sales tax for my whole state. It’s an incredible community and I am very grateful for i.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Wow, this is a question that speaks to me because I live in New York City, a place that is known for the arts but which is incredibly hostile to people trying to live a creative life. I am very much in favor of governmental policies like Ireland’s tax-free life for artists, or their program that provides a universal basic income for artists. Now that’s forward thinking!
As an artist without the advantage of generational wealth, I have been squeezed out of so many arts workspaces in New York City, including what I personally call “the biggie”, a mass eviction of 300+ artists in Gowanus, Brooklyn, that I know caused an exodus of artists from our own creative ecosystem.
On a basic level, what our society can do to support artists is to get rid of the assumption that artists should make money, or at least not enough to live comfortably – tax benefits and income subsidies are necessary and should be provided to bridge that gap. Remote working has meant many, many office vacancies – municipalities could work with landlords to provide rock-bottom rents to artists. It is a proven fact that artists can resuscitate towns and cities that everyone else, including their own governments, have given up on. Just give us a chance!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
As a freelancer, I feel like I have had to pivot with each job. And I have! That ability to pivot successfully comes with time – but each time I do it successfully it builds a little bit of self-confidence. Early on I decided not to say “no” to projects I could do but which scared me – those projects have helped build me into the artist I am today.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.littlewhitebird.com
- Instagram: @ellenlindna