This fall WNIJ’s Yvonne Boose is doing an Art Crawl. She’s tagging along with a few northern Illinois artists while they are in their creative element. This week’s artist is Steve Lindsay.
Lindsay said fall is his favorite season to create.
"I really love it because it is the perfect weather to wear my jackets out and about," he said. "In a four-season town,
spring [or] summer tend to be packed with more shows and social events and less time to make things."
One way he creates is by taking jackets he gets from the thrift store and repurposes them.
Lindsay’s name is listed on the Rockford Area Arts Council artist directory under "fashion designer." When I contacted him, he explained he didn’t have a retail space but agreed to set up an area in his girlfriend’s basement for me to see his work, and also offered to do a demonstration.
He met me on the sidewalk as I approached her house. “Down to the dungeon,” Lindsay said, as he escorted me into the home.
A long line of custom wear was hanging across the basement.
The first garment that spoke to me was a black jacket with gold lettering that spells out Rakim, the name of one half the 80’s rap duo, Eric B. and Rakim.
“That's probably my favorite one,” he said, “because I think he's the best rapper that's ever done it, but that's my bias. But yeah, that's actually from an album cover called Follow the Leader, and on the album cover, they show him and Eric B sitting down. So, I wanted to replicate his jacket.”
Lindsay said the original was created by Dapper Dan, a fashion designer from New York.
Lindsay showcased his creativity in the outfit that he had on. It was a pink short-sleeve button shirt down with fringes across the pockets.
“I think it's fun to wear something out like this,” he said. “That's going to be what I would consider a statement piece, you know, whereas obviously canvas can still be a statement piece.”
“I just like to wear mine around," he added, "and I've always been into clothing, really, for a long time, it's just as years have gone on, I started getting into making my own clothing.”
Lindsay started creating things when he was little. He would make earrings and sell them at his church’s craft show. He said he never had the chance to flourish until he moved to California in the late 90s.
He said his family didn’t fuel his creativity. His dad was a teacher, coach and athletic director.
“My parents never discouraged us from doing whatever it was that we wanted, but we just grew up knowing sports and doing sports,” he said. “But I always had, like, a little creative itch that would happen occasionally.”
Lindsay learned that his dad did some acting and singing in college. He also found out some of his uncles on his mom's side played guitar and were also singers.
Lindsay expresses his creativity though many arts forms - fashion design, singing, and writing are some of them.
A large square bucket sat in the middle of the floor with a stand that Lindsay uses to put garments on.
He began what he calls a “dirty pour.” Lindsay mixed three or four colors into one cup and then layered it evenly across the back of the jacket. The bucket is there to catch the paint that falls.
Emily Dyrson is Lindsay’s girlfriend. She takes the residuals of his creations and gives life to something else.
Dyrson lets the paint drippings, that fall off the jacket into the bucket, dry for a couple of days then she lifts them up and repurposes them.
“When he does these paint pours it dries in the bottom of this container, okay, turns into, like a skin, like it peels up and it's, it's flat, a little thin,” she explained. “But I found out that you can actually turn that into jewelry. So, all of this stuff is extra paint from all of the jackets. It's all creative.”
Dyrson sells this paint pour jewelry through her company Echo Charlie Designs. The couple offers most of their creations on Etsy and at craft shows.
Lindsay said he plans to infuse more of his art into the community. He also wants to spend more time producing music. He said he loves his full-time job buts would absolutely love to create full time.
His dream is to open a retail store, but until that happens, Lindsay says he will continue push his artistic charm into the Rockford community.
