Lindsey Lodenquai – Following her art

YOUR 20-somethings are meant for finding yourself and following your heart, and Lindsey Lodenquai is doing both with passion and panache. It might have taken her a few detours and wrong turns, but the creative director, mother and entrepreneur knows that she has found her way to the path that was meant for her to take. She is in a good place.

“I think I’m finally at a place where I feel comfortable, satisfied and happy about what I’m doing,” the New Wave Jamaica curator and creative director told All Woman contemplatively between sips of Sol beer over brunch at Chilitos over the weekend. The breezy, bright patio was perfect for Lodenquai, who spoke candidly about her passions, professions and parenting.

“It’s taken me a little while to get here. I’ve done a whole bunch of other things, but I finally feel settled in my path and the direction that I’m going in,” she said thoughtfully.

Like it has done for many others, the pandemic presented Lodenquai with the perfect opportunity to ruminate and reroute, and she has done just that.

“I’ve always loved art, but I only started designing last year, during the beginning of the pandemic,” she said. “Spending all that time at home gave me a chance to think, ‘Alright Lindsey, the world is shifting. Things are happening. You have this time to get centred now. What is it that you want to do, and how are you going to build yourself going forward?’ I thought about the things I loved and how I could make money and create purpose out of those things. I started doing sets, interior design and staging photographs here and there, and from that it just kind of built up, and that’s what I am doing now.”

Londenquai always knew that she was meant to be an artist, in one capacity or another. She has been expressing herself through the visual and performing arts for all of her life, but when the time came to choose a career path, she chose prudently and practically.

“I chose the degree that I did, Entertainment and Cultural Enterprise Management, with a minor in Integrated Marketing and Communication, because it gave me options. It wasn’t tied to one specific thing, which I really, really appreciated. I just knew that I wanted to get experience in the creative field,” the Immaculate Conception High School and University of the West Indies graduate explained. “But it’s only now, coming out of university and working and getting experience, that I started learning about all the creative fields that are out there.”

Having been a dancer all her life, Londenquai did a short stint in New York on a dance scholarship after graduation, but: “there was something that was pulling me back to Jamaica, so I came back, and started developing New Wave, which has been my baby since.”

But even as she was nursing that baby, the artist had another on the way. She gave birth to her daughter Yara in 2017, and becoming a mother amplified her soul’s yearning to dig deeper into who she is.

“Motherhood gave me a little bit more drive,” Londenquai said, pride radiating through her hazel eyes. “I want to be an example for her; to let her see that anything she wants in life is attainable, and she doesn’t have to choose a typical career path. I want to be one of those forces in her life. Yara has definitely given me the inspiration to live a little more and find my course in life, so that she can one day find her course in life too.”

One of the biggest obstacles the mother had to overcome to be able to follow her heart is self-doubt.

“I think I get into my head a lot, but that’s something that I’m trying to weed out of my life… Just that fear and self-doubt, so that I can have the courage to go for the things that I want to do, and not be stopped by my mind telling me that I can’t do that yet.”

Having fought tooth and nail to get to the place where she is mentally, the designer enjoys pouring her creativity into taking people there, physically. She does this by creating spaces.

“I love to create a feeling — to transform spaces to create a feeling, so that when people come into that space, it’s memorable,” she said.

Knowing the level of impact that the physical space has on the mental, Lodenquai is keen on curating hers carefully. Despite growing up and currently living in Kingston, the city girl ensures that she takes frequent trips to the coast, and the serene hills, and someday hopes to reside in St Ann.

“Since I was a child, anytime I used to drive through St Ann I would always be so happy,” the only child shared. “It’s a parish that I really like. It kind of gives you country, but then it kinda gives you some city life as well, and I find that I want to be closer to the outdoors as I get older.”

As she leaves the 20-somethings, too, she is realising that her purpose in life is not just to take up space, but to create space for others.

“We’re here for however long we’re here for, and I want to be able to touch people in any positive way that I can through the work that I do,” Lodenquai said solemnly. “Even if it’s just to make somebody feel good for the day that they come into a space I created, or to feel really comfortable and positive about where they are and what they’re doing through the set that I designed for them, I want to make a positive impact.”