We were lucky to catch up with LUKE Haynes recently and have shared our conversation below.
LUKE , so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?
Success measurement is a tough system of metrics. One has to find a datum from which to measure growth [either positive or negative] so one has to decide what the best system will be to measure AND whom or what to measure it against. In a large company, one can know if their salary or station is above or below fellow staff, but in a data pool of one, it’s much more difficult. I have to decide if I am the best metric or if I ought to look outside the studio to see where my successes fall.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I fell in love with quilting because it represents a greater idea of comfort and utility. To be honest, it took me years to fully understand that idea and the reason why I, as a 40-year-old male, find so much of my identity and intrigue behind textiles and tactile art-making. I lived in 15 states and grew up in households without any real family presence. Because of those circumstances, I found empowerment in teaching myself self-efficiency and how to build a nurturing home environment as just a pre-teen boy. It was always my priority to make myself feel cared for within an infrastructure that hadn’t set me up to succeed. I looked to art and creative problem solving to become my curriculum for radical survival and stepping into my identity as a young man.
I translated what my childhood had taught me about self-efficient home building quite literally when I decided to study architecture at Cooper Union in New York City. I was interested in exploring structure and material; the things that I valued the most when experienced spatially. I wanted to create environments that offered what my upbringing hadn’t; ones that were crafted to care for the inhabitant and regenerate themselves. I grew my knowledge of what it meant to create one’s own system of comfort through tangible structures during my time there, but ended up leaving still searching for a better way to fulfill my “why”.
Later that year, I found my “why”. I found quilting. I fell in love. I taught myself how to sew. I found comfort in creating the epitome of a comfort object. The architectural foundation that had been established at Cooper Union informed how I manipulated textiles and viewed woven infrastructures. It gave me the confidence to grant myself permission to experiment in ways that have been historically taboo in the world of quilting.
I initially found intrigue and success in challenging how people perceived the traditional paradigm of craft; I treated quilts as sculpture, created photo-realistic portraits out of fabric, and constructed large-scale quilts to cover external building structures. I wrote memoirs with fabric as I created collections of quilts that spoke to nostalgia, function, and identity. I explored material as I spent hours at the same thrift stores I had shopped at as a child, but this time to source materials to construct a collection of Log Cabin quilts that would go on tour around the world.
I’m a 40-year-old architect turned quilter with a love for creating tactile objects that have a history of utility and a future of self-preservation. I research comfort by creating comfort objects. I create environments through a filter of support, efficiency, and accessibility. I make fine art with a process that historically has only been identified with Grandmas and crafts, and I want to have a conversation about it.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Learn, try, and ask.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I am looking to expand my business into the architectural and interior design fields. I have a lot of experience with exhibitions and tried in architecture in university, and would love to bring those to bear in some creative business collaborations.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.LUKE.art
- Instagram: @entropies
Image Credits
Photo by Nate Watters
