Lindsey Pollard grew up in a crafty family. On one side, her maternal grandfather’s hobbies included glassblowing and making parade floats. Her paternal grandmother hand-made her clothes and felted church hats often covered in feathers. She also remembers her paternal grandfather sitting at a card table watching his favorite gardening show while designing Japanese-inspired punch rugs. With access to a craft cupboard and a sewing room while growing up, it’s no surprise that Pollard would be inspired to make her own eclectic creations starting with dolls at the age of five. Today, she enjoys the contrast of spontaneous crafting with her more disciplined day job as an Animation Timer on King of the Hill.
Adventure Fish, a whimsical art piece that she created as part of a gallery show, infuses her love of crafting with her penchant for collecting miniatures and found objects. “I always start with the shoes,” says Pollard. The boots, heels, or loafers tend to come from her extensive collection of vintage Barbie and Ken footwear. In the case of Adventure Fish, she started with a pair of green, candy-like rubber Barbie boots and imagined long skinny legs inside of them. “There’s never a plan, no pattern,” she says, adding that she embraces happy accidents.
Pollard continued to follow her instincts to create the hanging fish, putting textures and fabrics together to form the body and then embroidering them together with different colors of thread to add contrast. Suspended by a piece of ethically sourced Joshua Tree, Adventure Fish appears to be on the move, with a mini atlas and lollipop in his jacket pocket, again courtesy of Pollard’s collection of little objects, including glass fisheyes, another source of inspiration.
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