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

Lisa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents were super innovative and creative people who continue to inspire my creative journeys! While neither would identify themselves as an artist, my father was a Presbyterian minister, clinical social worker and social work professor, and my mother was the assistant director at our local university, They were huge supporters of the arts! Specifically, they attended local theatre when possible, always had interesting art work in the house, and their book shelves were populated with artists, whom I would later study in graduate school. Very importantly, the way they navigated their lives- managing full time careers, raising three children, and still having time for friends, and international students who needed meals and places to stay.

Additionally, they each played classical piano as well as gospel. As a family, we listened to a variety of albums ranging from musicals to gospel to Jimmy Hendrix, I grew up inside of music and color largely due to my parents’ life passions and choices related to their careers, church, and schools. I attended a largely African American elementary school in Pittsburgh; and my father was a minister at a racially diverse church.

From a young age, my mother sewed our clothes in bold colors and patterns in an effort that she could find us if we were ever out of shouting range. In addition, she consistently gave me fabric remnants from which I made my barbies’ clothing. Prior to pre-school I loved to create squiggle drawings with markers and papers while Mama cooked meals and folded laundry. Daddy would return home after home visits with parishioners and sing my praises for my intricate squiggle drawings that took on the shapes of people, trees, waves. These drawings were like a chain of infinity symbols linked together for create a form.

From the age of nine, I loved managing performances with my siblings and extended kinfolk for my parents, auntie and uncle. I was very encouraged through their praise and enthusiasm. To this day at sixty years old, I am involved with organizing pop up shows for visual artists, and showcases for dancers, in which I play roles as manager/coordinator and participant!

My Father passed away nine years ago, and I still feel his encouraging presence when I write, collage and dance. My Mother is now in a care facility and still has my rocking chair painting above her bed. While she cannot identify the time of day at this stage, she can remember that I was exploring tonal value contrast in that painting, and consistently tells me how proud she is that I am an artist!

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.

As noted earlier, I feel as though I was born inside of music and color! I have been drawing, performing, and dancing from early days, even before I went to school. I have taught art with kindergarteners through college aged adults for nearly a quarter of a century.

I have recently retired from full-time teaching, and am exploring a variety of media including, but not limited to: relief prints with largely botanical themes, knitted plusharamas (stuffed creatures), mixed media wall art, and collaged resin magnets and jewelry.

Furthermore, I continue to do a type of fusion belly dance which is informed by North African, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Balkan traditions. Our regalia is very textured and weaves together a myriad of traditions, with the result that I feel like a dancing collage! And like my drawings and mixed media wall art, a view dance as a composition as I consider shape, form, directional axis, and positive and negative space.

I am most proud of the fact that I am an innovator- a resourceful artists who works with what she has. Moreover, I am inspired by taking “SPS” (small plastic stuff) I find on my walks and integrating it into mixed media art works. Bits of broken headlights, candy wrappers, birthday cards, bread ties, and discarded lids are all fair game in my wearable creations, and wall collages. I love the idea of giving materials new life, and taking the mundane and converting it into something more magical.

Finally, my proudest moments are: 1) when my art pieces transcend generations; in other words, when my work speaks to adults and kids, alike, and 2) when I run into my former students and they have chosen creative paths, or let me know how art has informed their respective lives, and 3) facilitating community led art showcases and salons where people feel more connected with each other, and with a more universal picture of what the arts do for us.

At this juncture, I am working and creating from home here in Prescott, Arizona, where I prep for local pop ups, and performances. I am in a kind of liminal space where I am preparing for my next journey. I am hoping to exhibit my work more locally, nationally, and internationally. You can find my work on Instagram @ lishendrickson18.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The formal elements that drive my creative journey are: color, form, texture, pattern, and rhythm both in my visual arts and dance. The missions that drive my creative journey are connected with: 1) transforming the mundane into the magical, 2) weaving various traditions together to create an art piece, and 3) having my work be accessible to a variety of age groups.

As noted earlier, with my mixed media resin art I am repurposing old greeting cards, stamps, etc. with found objects such as thread, candy wrappers, rubber bands, and small plastic stuff I find on my daily urban walks. I am inspired by having these older, discarded objects be the point of departure for a fresh take and new work of art. I also love assembling seemingly unrelated images and objects to create a whole world on a very micro level.

I have taught art with kindergarteners through university level students and older. With this in mind, I am driven to create art that all aged folk can relate to. Much of my work, particularly my Plusharamas (other worldly and hybridized knitted stuffed animals) and resin works, are whimsical, colorful and playful; and while I just turned sixty, I love to relate to my own work as play. There is nothing better than being in the flow and getting lost in time and space while composing art pieces and dance compositions, and by extension, for people of older and younger generations to appreciate not just the humor in some of the more whimsical pieces; but the time I dedicated to taking these projects to completion.

Finally, I am inspired by art from so many traditions, including but not limited to, quilting, masking, Southwest Native American stories, and movement and music from many parts of of the world such as India, Northern Africa, Turkey and the Balkans in particular. I feel my sense of rhythm, pattern, integration of various textures and color sense is influenced by some of these traditions.

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

I am clear that before I am anything else, I am an artist first! I have never doubted that in this life I wanted and was driven to create! One of the things I love so much about being an artist and a creative, is that we get to create things from a blank canvas. In other words, we can have our lived experiences, the music we listen to, the poetry we read and write, and societal events and struggles inform our creative journeys broadly, and the dance and visual pieces we create, specifically.

While I love exhibiting and selling my art work, as well as teach studio classes, one of the most rewarding aspects of being a creative is that I am able to draw, print, knit, resin, or improvise dance combinations on the daily. I love this kind of freedom to express and integrate what is happening both immediately around me, and also far away into a composition, a knitted piece, a dance, or a wearable work of art.

Each morning when I wake, I dress in bright colors, and fix my hair in curls, braids, or space buns. My lipstick matches my shoes, and I am often sporting jewelry that either I or one of my artist friends has made. As a creative, I become the art! I often have people stop and ask me about my clothing, or tell me they appreciate my colors. I find this extremely rewarding because as humans, I know we crave Art on sensory and spiritual levels; and I get to make it, and be it!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: lisahendrickson18
• Facebook: Lisa Hendrickson
• Other: email: [email protected]