We had the good fortune of connecting with Lindsey Wonder and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lindsey, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
It has always been a goal of mine to have an artistic career, probably before I even knew what a career or a goal was. As a child the only answer I ever had to “what do you want to be when you grow up?” was “an artist” and I am very lucky to come from a family who supported this dream, rather than telling me I needed to pursue a “real job”. I remember being in elementary school in the early 90’s and seeing an ad on the TV for an art college, calling them and hearing them chuckle when I answered “what year will you be graduating from high school?” with “2003”. To learn that art college was a thing was such a relief for me, having heard my parents mention how important going to college was from an early age.
During my senior year at The School of Visual Arts in New York, my senior seminar teacher told us a very harrowing statistic; that five years after graduation less then half of us would even be making art anymore, let alone doing it as a career. 14 years after graduating, I’m proud to have defied this statistic.
As an adult, my definition of success has been to be able to afford your lifestyle solely doing something you enjoy. Getting to spend everyday being creative and being able to support myself doing so is a dream come true for me and I have never been able to see myself doing anything else.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It’s exciting for me to have made a career in two areas of art with very rich histories, tattooing and stained glass. I’m proud to be able to continue those histories with time tested techniques and to be able to put my own spin on them. With my stained glass work, I am able to use those classic techniques to create original works with my own patterns (my drawing background definitely comes in handy there). It’s fun to often “combine” those two styles of art, making glass pieces that have tattoo imagery in them. I wouldn’t call the road I traveled easy, but certainly worth every step to get to where I am. I’ve learned to stay focused and optimistic; and to stay on top of sharing and talking about my art as much I can. When your art is your business, you need to promote it as much as possible and not be afraid to show it to anyone who will look at it!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would want to show them all of the great murals around Tucson, we’re so lucky to have such a colorful city to call home. We would eat way too many tacos all around town and steaks at Daisy Mae’s on the west side. Obviously Saguaro National Park for the best sunset, full of color and amazing cacti.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My family, for always encouraging my dream to be a professional artist.

Website: www.lindseywonder.com

Instagram: @lindseywonder

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