We are thrilled to launch our Featured Artist program on our brand new gallery wall in the bar/cafe! Every few months, we will be selecting a new artist to feature their work at Riffraff. All the art will be for sale as well!
Current featured artist:
Lynden George
Hello friends, my name is Lynden (they/them) and I am a visual artist living here in Providence. The main mediums I like to work in are painting and illustration with ink and watercolor, but I also love mehndi, textiles, embroidery, and clay!
I love surrealism, using symbols and figures to create a narrative that viewers can interpret on their own. A lot of the time I will start a painting and not understand what it is about until it is finished, but when it is done I can understand my own feelings better.
I use art as a form of story telling, as well as for reflection, emotional release, and for identity exploration. I am Biracial-Desi-Jewish-first-gen-American, and very very queer, so art has been an important tool in building my self confidence and learning to love all of the complexities and dichotomies that make up who I am as a person.
Lately I have been wanting to have my art practice be a bigger part of my life, and so I started considering how I can use it to make a living. With that in mind, I have been searching for an apprenticeship with a tattoo artist! Tattooing is a very intimate artform, the art that people chose to put on their bodies is a way of showing the world pieces of themselves that are not usually visible to the eye. Because I have always used art as a way to express myself, I think it would be amazing to have a career where I can use the skills I have been developing to help other people do the same!
Most of the ink illustrations displayed here are original pieces from my art portfolio that I put together over the course of the past year to bring to tattoo shops, as I did research to figure out what kind of tattoo artist I would want to be. Some of the art references that I find very inspiring are botanical illustrations, wildlife and insects, fairytales and mythology, ornamental designs, stylized art like comics, manga, illustrations, folk art and crafts.
I love history and researching, and have been deep diving into the rich history of tattoos, and the many cultures in Asia and the Pacific Islands that inspired the American Sailors who brought those traditions back to the United States. I think this history is often lost in the aesthetics of tattooing, and I want to make sure that I am educating myself so I can be culturally sensitive as I am moving into an industry with deep roots in indigenous cultures. It is always important to understand the roots of iconography, and the people who originally created the work, and to credit the sources you draw inspiration from as an artist.
I genuinely hope that my artwork will speak to you, and if it does, and you have the means, please consider purchasing a piece! Parting with original artwork is hard for me, but I would like to put aside some money for when I am able to find a tattoo apprenticeship, and to buy the materials I will need to be a tattoo artist.
Thank you for reading this bio and looking at my artwork!
If you would like to see more of my artwork you can check out my instagram pages:
★ Lynden.mayyy
★ Illustrations.by.lynden
Previous Featured Artists:
FEATURED ARTIST SUBMISSIONS: If you are interested in becoming a Featured Artist at Riffraff, please send an email to ottavia@riffraffpvd.com with a sample of your work and a short paragraph about yourself. Due to the volume of submissions, we may not get back to every email. Thank you, and we look forward to hearing from you!