We interviewed Austin artist Lucy Orich about empowering women, Lizzo and nudes from strangers. Enjoy!
How would you describe your current work? Have you ever explored other styles/mediums of art?
I would describe my work as cheeky hand embroidery that celebrates and empowers women of all shapes and sizes. As an artist, you're always branching out to learn new crafts and techniques. I've dabbled in wood burning, knitting, calligraphy, etc. but embroidery is what stuck. Even under the umbrella of needlepoint, I've done cross stitch as well as expanding my embroidery skills to try sewing clothing, hats, pins, and patches. It's always about exploring new ways to be an artist and incorporate your art within new mediums.
I see you take custom orders, who would be your dream client? What would they want?
Oh great question! I think sewing an item of clothing for a music artist I admired would be my dream custom order. I would love to make a denim jacket for Julian Casablancas, Alex Turner, Angel Olson, Jack White, or Beck! I would also love to sew a piece of clothing for someone that represents full figured women and body positivity like Lizzo.
Who/What inspires your work currently?
I'm always inspired by women who embody confidence, body positivity and self love at any size. Whether that's public figures like Lizzo or Ashley Graham, or someone from a facebook group or instagram that has sent me a photo of themselves feeling confident and beautiful. I've received many nudes from trusting strangers and that trust inspires me to make them feel beautiful and represented.
Do you feel like the embroidery community is a close-knit group or do you feel like it’s every woman for herself?
I absolutely love the embroidery community, it's incredibly supportive! Embroidery is so different from person to person that you can be fully supportive without feeling like someone else's success is your failure. Some people (it's not just women!) sew dog portraits, others do landscapes, plants, cross stitch, funny sayings; no two people have the same sewing style. There's only one other embroidery artist that has overlapped on a lot of the designs I've also sewn and we actually developed a beautiful (virtual) friendship bonding over our similar aesthetic. And even then, they'll send me photos of designs they think I should do and I'll post about their work via instagram. We also have "Follow Fridays" where embroidery artists will post about fellow artists and show support. When I was starting out I was able to message other artists for advice and now it's come full circle where budding embroidery artists message me with questions and showing me their work. I love getting to pay that support forward and be in a community where everyone wants everyone else to succeed.
What do you have going on in 2019?
2019 has been a great year for my embroidery! I recently moved from LA to Austin and I've been working on growing my business in this new city. I recently was a vendor at the CraftHer Market put on by Boss Babes, I had an Anthropologie pop up and I'm in the works for a second one, and I was a vendor during SXSW. I'm also leaning a lot towards making more clothing and jackets (I've got to wait for the Texas heat to die down) and building my inventory to prepare for the holiday season!