We recently connected with Lindsey Creel Cherry and have shared our conversation below.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I arrived in the fine art realm a few years ago, though I spent the decade prior in apparel design. It is common practice to separate the two ideas, art and design, as if there is little distinct connection or overlap. I don’t believe this divide is as deep as it is promoted to be. I spent 10 years in apparel design under the brand M.E. Shirley, finding success selling in retail stores, on Project Runway, and with opportunities like speaking at TEDX Youth.

Eventually I wanted something different and went back to school for an MFA in Studio Art with a focus in Drawing. Digging into the more rich creative aspects of making awakened a new light in my life. My current work revolves around time, memory, and scale, highlighting and documenting the seasonal shifts of plant life around my farm. Essentially my art is the long term proof of fleeting moments experienced in the fulfilling aspects of my life-connecting with nature and cycles of time. Most of my work is in charcoal, a nod to the materials I take reference from, but I still work in 3D through installations when the idea and setting calls for it.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In 2020 I was a few years into navigating an MFA degree in Fashion. I was burnt out in my field, and hoping a terminal degree program would give me new structure and spark. It didn’t. When Covid hit I (like all of us) was forced to reprioritize what was important in my life and what I wanted with my day to day.

My husband and I had left Austin for what we thought was a few weeks of a passing pandemic. A few months later, isolated in a town where I knew no one, I decided to transfer my studies to a small art program in East Texas near my family’s farm. Drawing quickly brought me back to a place of fulfillment in the creative realm. I was awake again and able to fire on all cylinders. After finishing the Studio Art MFA program I was hired on to run the Drawing program I had completed months previous. Currently I am a practicing artist and an Assistant Professor of Art in East Texas. So, pivot. When life tells you to take a sharp left, turn left, hard.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I’ve never considered myself an artist or creator. I am a maker. I find as much joy in finishing a 12 foot drawing as in renovating a sailboat or working in the garden. There is no feeling like pulling something from your imagination and plopping it into reality. It’s not so much pride producing, more like a sense of right in the world.

My work in teaching is rewarding as well. People say that. Maybe we are obligated to say it, but consistently observing young artists go from timid to confident within the course of months is an endless dopamine boost.    

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lindseycreelcherry.com
• Instagram: @lindseycreelcherry
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/lindsey-creel