A retired grade school and part-time art teacher, Lindsey Alexander has turned sections of her home and backyard into modern-day “grottos” memorializing personal family histories. She uses blue Estée Lauder bottles from her mother’s personal collection, diary and hand-written letter transfers onto ceramic tile, shards of fine china, collected mementos, jewels, sequins, beads, eggshells, handmade ceramics, found objects, and donated personal items from friends and family, as well as salvaged chunks of walls and floors from previous, now demolished family homes.  She has also incorporated bake-in-the-kitchen waterslide decal transfers of childhood fabrics, her mother’s clothes, her father’s musical scores, and remnants of wallpapers from her former homes into her work.  Just off the back porch, a strip of the backyard is covered with broken pieces of residual materials from both her childhood home (where her parents raised five daughters, and lived for 50 years), and their previous home, where Lindsey and her husband Steve lived for 21 years while raising their two daughters.

Arrangements to visit may be arranged through Lindsey’s Facebook page

See also:

• Art Environments - Midwest | Photos by Fred Scruton

External resources:

• Lindsey Alexander in Facebook