From Sketch to Cafe: PSU Muralist Lindsey Kircher
It’s hard to pick a major when you’re still a teenager. It feels like that one decision will determine your career path forever — and many struggle with it. But not Lindsey Kircher. Drawing and painting are her passions and there was no doubt that she’d focus on them in college. Now the 21-year-old Visual Arts major will have her work on public display for the first time at the brand-new Saxbys Penn State cafe. She’s one half of the duo that painted the amazing 30-by-8 foot mural. Let’s learn a bit more about Lindsey:
Where did you grow up?
The Washington, D.C. area, Northern Virginia.
When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
I’ve always been drawing. I was the best one in my art classes in elementary school. In high school, I went to Interlochen Arts Camp and was even considering boarding school for art during the academic year. I didn’t go, but the fact that I even considered it made me realize that I wanted to get serious about art in college. My path has not faltered since.
What inspires you as an artist?
A lot of my work is based on my own life. I like to revisit and reinterpret experiences that were unsettling at the time. Or even enjoyable experiences where something’s not quite right. My most recent body of work is paintings about being a young woman at a large state university where there are a lot of degrading power dynamics that emerge from institutions like Greek life or sports games. I’m a participant in this culture — I’m in a sorority and I like going to football games — but there’s an element of ‘why are we doing this?’ The more unsettling aspects of life here can be overlooked. I’m trying to make sense of it rather than condemn it.
Which artists inspire you?
Contemporary artists like Nicole Eisenman, Dana Schutz, Jules de Balincourt, Alice Neel, Alex Katz, and Kerry James Marshall. They’re all figurative painters that capture people in every day scenes or in fantastical imagined scenes, but all speak to universal human behavior and identity. More historical artists would be Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Francisco Goya, and El Greco.
Are you excited about the Saxbys mural and having your art displayed in a public place?
This is my first public work. It’s really exciting. Business students come by everyday so people are going to see it a lot — I’m grateful for that. Maybe some future projects will come out of this. It’s important to create work with a public in mind. I’m so used to tinkering away in my own studio — so for this piece, I had to broaden the scope, use more bright colors, and recognizable figures and scenes.
What are your career aspirations?
After I graduate I hope to do artist residencies and pursue my masters in fine arts degree in drawing and painting. I would like to ultimately be an art professor and have a career as an artist, showing in galleries.
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