The Daily Muse: Lily Hinrichsen, Mixed Media Artist and Teacher

Elusive Muse is pleased to introduce mixed media artist and teacher Lily Hinrichsen. To learn more about Lily, to review her workshop schedule, to see more of her work or to purchase something visit her website: www.lilyhinrichsen.com

© 2015 Lily Hinrichsen, All Rights Reserved.

I’ve been creating things all my life.

To create things is how I process my inner and outer movements as I travel through life. I draw and paint, make monotypes, stick pins in the wall, sow seeds, observe Trout Lilies, knit hats, create websites, spin wool, make body lotion, write haikus, wear striped socks, make snow angels, photograph the natural world, make collages, and whatever my heart desires.

As a child I spent a lot of time outdoors playing in our acre-and-a-half yard and horse pasture in Sioux City, Iowa; climbing trees, creating forts in the fruit trees, making doll houses out of cardboard boxes, digging snow caves beside the driveway, playing hide n’ seek by the light of the street lamp. With eleven brothers and sisters I was never lacking a playmate but I also had to work harder at finding or creating places of solitude. Play, imagination, resourcefulness, spontaneity. . . these shaped my creative whims, as well as being a keen explorer of the natural world. I observe, contemplate, and report my findings on paper and canvas in the form of imagery, line, color, and words. I take in the ever-changing world around me in quick and thoughtful snapshots; not unlike the haikus I pen. Both require quietness and alertness, the tools of one devoted to being present in life. Drawing, sketching, painting, and crafting was never far from my fingertips. As a shy and introverted individual, I found that ‘creating things’ was an easier way for me to communicate and connect with people, then speaking. I still feel this to be true.

I left home at age 18 and went on to a series of colleges obtaining degrees in Graphic Design, Art Education, and a Masters in Studio Arts. In 1996 I moved to Johnson, Vermont where I was on staff at the Vermont Studio Center for 4 years, one of the largest art colonies in the nation. It was a pivotal period for me to have so much space and time to create art and to have access to artists and writers of all mediums, experience, nationalities, and philosophies. My concepts of art expanded as I was challenged and supported to go deeper into my process, and to also experiment with a wide range of materials and techniques. Over the years I’ve exhibited my work in the form of oil paintings, monotypes, fabric installations, mixed media drawings, and 3D assemblages. Some themes of these exhibits have been Home, Night Dreams, Secret Codes, Forts, Domestic Life, and Field Notes from Nature.

I create out of faith and without self-consciousness. I trust my instincts. The relationships throughout my pieces… image to image, color to color, image to space, space to texture, and so forth….. this is what interests me.
There is always a wide space of unknowing in what the outcome will be. I value this suspension of knowledge and in these spaces I exercise play and curiosity. I often stand before my pieces with the longing to know more.

When I need to heal I seek out water to be in or near.

~ Lily Hinrichsen