The Who
Lindsey M. Dillon is an award-winning, Sacramento-based ceramic artist who makes mugs and creature sculptures inspired by history, geek culture, and the fields of concept art and creature design.
She has displayed her sculptures in local galleries, partnered with local businesses to make unique sets of serve ware, and created lines of geek-and-gamer-inspired mugs to showcase at anime and pop culture conventions.
She infuses her work with a fascination with texture, a passion for the imaginary, and an appreciation of the power of story. Her work extends an invitation to engage in humanity’s rich history of using fiction to connect to and reflect real experiences.
Lindsey received her B.A. in Art in 2013, and has been working in clay professionally since 2014.
The Where
Everything I make comes out of my home studio just outside of downtown Sacramento, California.
Of course, it didn’t start out as the temple to tasteful sidewalk finds and Ikea that it is today.
My workspace began as a 6’x2’ pop-up table squeezed in between boxes of family storage.
I’m lucky enough to have a family that supported my career choice, and even luckier that they let me convert their garage into a full-blown ceramics studio as my business grew.
A proper work table, shelving, and a pottery wheel steadily replaced the boxes, and I even added a kiln under an outdoor overhang. My 22-year-old self would hardly believe my current studio is the garage I started out in.
Because I’m half-convinced there’s an alternate reality version of me somewhere out there who’s a spell-slinging alchemist, I plan on developing a workspace aesthetic that looks like it might be where you go to buy spell ingredients or have your sword enchanted.
That might take a bit more than Ikea, but as long as my other self doesn’t come after me, I’ve got the time to make it happen.
The How
In a round-about way, I can thank mono for getting me into ceramics…
Yes, mononucleosis, the “kissing disease.” I had the pleasure of catching this sickness in my junior year of high school and missing a little over 2 weeks of school.
While I recovered, unfortunately my Pre-Calculus grade did not. Despite my best efforts, halfway through the year I decided to cut my losses and take a class to fulfill the art credit that still sat empty on my college-prep checklist.
I had a couple friends in the ceramics class, so I joined them.
When I first stepped into that class, I knew that when I went to college, I was going to major in anthropology, history, or maybe sociology.
I considered myself an academic, focused, and driven individual who’d always enjoyed the arts but never considered it as a career option.
A few months later, I was asking my teacher how to make a living as a ceramic artist.
I received my bachelors degree in art from UC Santa Cruz in 2013, and since then I have been answering that question for myself.
It’s been a bit of a journey — one that started out with my high school peers and their parents asking me if I was going to enjoy being a “starving artist” when I told them what I was going to major in.
It continued with a degree that prepared me to make and talk about my art, but with but a scant idea of how to actually make money in the art world.
After graduating, I moved back to Sacramento and balanced part-time jobs with my growing studio practice.
I took continuing education classes at a local community college, where I learned about some of the more technical sides of ceramics as I explored and began to hone in on the kind of work I was interested in making.
I began selling my functional work at conventions while applying to gallery shows with my sculptural work, slowly learning the business skills that have formed the foundation of where I am now.
As my business grew and I acquired the space and equipment I needed to work independently, I steadily decreased my hours at my part-time job.
I am proud — and still kind of amazed — to say that I have been working as a full-time artist since I quit my part-time job in January of 2020.
I still struggle with the stereotypes of being an artist.
I’m reminded of those stereotypes when I think of the time I told my Uber driver I was an artist and they replied with, “Huh, how’s that going for you?” Or when I was chatting with a stranger next on a plane and they tentatively asked, “So, are you making a living off your art?”
I’m reminded of those stereotypes when I have to Google the most basic business information because it wasn’t a part of my degree. Or when I worry that an understandable mistake will get me labelled as a flaky, distracted artist.
Making a living in the arts takes ingenuity and grit, no doubt.
But like the millions of other people who chose something other than a nine-to-five, I’m always learning more about how to make the thing I am most passionate about the thing that I make a living from.
And I’m doin’ ok.
I hope that in a small way, sharing my process will show one more way that it’s possible to make a living in the arts — no matter what your Uber driver says.
Awards, Exhibitions, and Projects
Awards and Exhibitions
2020 — Gallerie Macabre, Archival Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2019 — California Clay Competition, The Artery, Davis, CA
East Bay Clay Juror’s Award
2019 — Capital Clay Invitational, E Street Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2018 — Emerging Artist Award from the Arts and Business Council of the Sacramento Region.
2017 — Bold Expressions, Sacramento Fine Art Center, Sacramento, CA
Expressions of Excellence Award
2015 — America’s Clayfest III, Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA
Honorary Mention
2014-2017 — California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Art (CCACA)
Featured in Sacramento News and Review’s article covering CCACA
2014 - present — Juried into conventions in Sacramento and San Jose.
Projects
Commissioned to create original award sculptures for the California State Library’s Early Learning Initiative in 2017.
Partnered with Bailarin Wine Cellars and Insight Coffee Roasters to create handmade serve ware for their new location at 720 Kst. in 2018
Partnered with Insight Coffee Roasters to create handmade serve ware for their location at 1901 8th Street in Downtown Sacramento in 2019