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Lindsey Palmer is a visual artist living and working in Pittsburgh, PA. She works as a youth mentor for the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, and is focused on working with middle school aged youth in an arts and making program.
Published on March 19th, 2023. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What are you fascinated with right now?
Right now I am fascinated with helping youth find their voice within art making, and how they can use art as a tool for self expression. I've been privileged to work with youth in my own community in my job as an informal art educator, this has led me to try new art making processes that I was previously unfamiliar with. Learning new processes after over a decade of making art with the same tools has made me rethink my studio practice entirely.
What advice would you give your younger artist self?
Try everything. Don't define yourself by one process. There is no one right way to do most things. Treat the work that you make like it is alive, talk to it, reason with it, understand that mistakes are growth and that art work just like people evolve and change. If you want to do something and you can make it happen, try it! Don't rely on others to teach you everything you need to know, you can teach yourself so many things.
What are your tools for creative resilience these days? Do you have any methods to stay positive when life becomes difficult and perhaps when you have limited time to create?
My current method is to try and make or write something everyday. I'm lucky enough to be working alongside youth who are learning art forms, so I get to make with them and teach myself new things so I can teach them. I've started writing about photography, which is something I have not done before, and I've found that when I can't find it in me to make a photograph, I can write about them; so instead of pushing my practice to the side completely, I'm still thinking over images I've made, want to make, or can't (won't) make.
What is your dreamy vision for your creative career and art practice three years from now?
Three years from now I'm hoping I've found a way to marry images and words together. I'd love to start publishing and getting feedback on my writing, which is something I haven't done since I was an undergraduate student. Within my day-to-day job, I'd love to be doing even more with our community than I am now, with a wider range of youth. Maybe I'll be regularly entering art shows with work, and finding ways to bring my photography and day-to-day job closer together.
How are you being kind to yourself as you look towards realizing your vision for your art career?
I'm working on being kind by reminding myself that making anything is better than making nothing, but the days I make nothing are OK too. Nothing happens overnight, and over the past few years I've isolated myself from the art community, out of fear that even though I "got the degree," I'll never do anything else worthy of it. I'm slowly just letting myself enjoy making again, for the sake of making and not to get a grade, win a prize, or impress someone.
What are you fascinated with right now?
Right now I am fascinated with helping youth find their voice within art making, and how they can use art as a tool for self expression. I've been privileged to work with youth in my own community in my job as an informal art educator, this has led me to try new art making processes that I was previously unfamiliar with. Learning new processes after over a decade of making art with the same tools has made me rethink my studio practice entirely.
What advice would you give your younger artist self?
Try everything. Don't define yourself by one process. There is no one right way to do most things. Treat the work that you make like it is alive, talk to it, reason with it, understand that mistakes are growth and that art work just like people evolve and change. If you want to do something and you can make it happen, try it! Don't rely on others to teach you everything you need to know, you can teach yourself so many things.
What are your tools for creative resilience these days? Do you have any methods to stay positive when life becomes difficult and perhaps when you have limited time to create?
My current method is to try and make or write something everyday. I'm lucky enough to be working alongside youth who are learning art forms, so I get to make with them and teach myself new things so I can teach them. I've started writing about photography, which is something I have not done before, and I've found that when I can't find it in me to make a photograph, I can write about them; so instead of pushing my practice to the side completely, I'm still thinking over images I've made, want to make, or can't (won't) make.
What is your dreamy vision for your creative career and art practice three years from now?
Three years from now I'm hoping I've found a way to marry images and words together. I'd love to start publishing and getting feedback on my writing, which is something I haven't done since I was an undergraduate student. Within my day-to-day job, I'd love to be doing even more with our community than I am now, with a wider range of youth. Maybe I'll be regularly entering art shows with work, and finding ways to bring my photography and day-to-day job closer together.
How are you being kind to yourself as you look towards realizing your vision for your art career?
I'm working on being kind by reminding myself that making anything is better than making nothing, but the days I make nothing are OK too. Nothing happens overnight, and over the past few years I've isolated myself from the art community, out of fear that even though I "got the degree," I'll never do anything else worthy of it. I'm slowly just letting myself enjoy making again, for the sake of making and not to get a grade, win a prize, or impress someone.
Find Lindsey Palmer on Instagram
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