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| At an exhibition in Sandy Hook, CT |
Linda Lyons Rynkowski, in an interview sitting in the sun, enjoying the late afternoon, said
she has always been making art. Her
earliest memories are of drawing as a youngster at the beach along the rocky
coastline of Massachusetts. She always drew. She attended Marblehead High
School in Massachusetts, which had a very special Art Major class for seniors,
2 hours (8-10) each morning. Linda explained, “We were exposed to how to create
aquatints, etchings, silkscreens, wood cuts and sculpture - fired and carved,
in addition to the basics of drawing and painting.” Her first mentor, Edward
Carey, was the head of the art department at Marblehead High. “He was an
outdoors man and a terrific artist,” Linda adds, “and with his guidance, I was
fortunate to be accepted into every college program that interested me.” |
| MFA final |
“I went to Boston
University on a full scholarship as a painting major,” Linda explained, “where
I was fortunate to study painting with mentors George Rose and Arthur Polonsky.
After a time I thought that a better business idea would be to graduate with a
degree in graphic design and paint in my spare time. As a child, I was a
painter, and I still loved to paint, but I realized from studying art history
that painting for a living was very difficult.“ She decided that to be true to
herself, she would continue to paint for herself. Upon graduation, she provided
her graphic design skills to small boutique shops, large corporations and
various ad agencies in the Boston area, working in her twenties at a boutique
shop which was voted Adweek’s Agency of the Year.
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| Forsythia 2 |
In 1996 she was accepted
to the Yale School of Art's summer graduate program in design, held that final
year in Brissago, Switzerland. “I was fortunate to be able to study in one of
the most beautiful places in the world, with the very best designers in the
world, including Paul Rand, Armin Hofmann and Wolfgang Weingart. It was a
realization of my design goals.” Linda explained that she learned a great deal
about discipline at that time from the Swiss way of life. When she attended the
first Brissago reunion in 2000, she met many students who had participated in
the program's previous twenty years.
Linda said, “An
underlying theme throughout my life has been reinvention. I’m not afraid of
change. I think in order to be creative and to maintain a high level of quality
in one’s work you must push through your comfort zones and take risks,
challenge yourself.” She found that she likes to be around young people, she
feeds off other people’s creative energy, adding, “I find it easier to create
my own deadlines when there are many things going on.”
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| Forsythia I |
She began her
interactive design career with Strategic Interactive Group, the trailblazing
web division of Digitas, again reinventing herself as a web designer. She was
fortunate to be part of the team that created the first Neiman Marcus web site.
Linda’s role was designing the site itself, which won Forbes Magazine's
prestigious Best Retail Web Site award in 2000. She was also a member of the
group that designed the early shopping carts for high end on-line fashion
stores, including Ann Taylor, and this model was the prototype for many
shopping carts still in use today. Linda
adds, “I used my own personal shopping experiences as guidelines for creating a
checkout that would not frustrate me as an online customer. We were creating
the bells and whistles of modern day web shopping. It was
such a new frontier
and we were making each page to order. It was a very exciting time in my life.
” With the success of her web designing skills, Linda was invited to relocated to work in New York City, and she
moved to Greenwich, a block from the train station. She wanted to be closer to
her clients and part of the excitement and action of the New York City
lifestyle. When the bubble burst, and the dot com industry became a part of
everyday life, the benefits changed and the business faltered.
“I became more involved
in my painting, and felt it was time to reinvent myself once again.” Linda
added, “I began a new career as an Adjunct Professor at Southern Connecticut
State University, teaching graphic design for the web. I also started taking
classes towards a teaching certification. During this period I considered
selling my own art. Through art sales I was introduced to the glamorous world
of interior design. I was originally hired by the amazingly talented Cindy
Rinfret of Greenwich Ave, later Lillian August.
I worked very hard to learn a new creative industry, and designed
beautiful interiors, often including the art work for the walls using the
personal tastes of my client as my guide.”
“Throughout this busy
period I continued to paint. I have always wanted to complete MFA in painting,
so I applied to the Masters Program in Painting at WCSU. I spoke with Margaret
Grimes and she convinced me without any resistance to enroll in 2010.” In addition to recently completing graduate
school, Linda had two large solo shows in Darien and just recently hosted a
summer show at a winery in Sandy Hook. She states, “It has all been terrific. I
really felt fortunate to participate in such a wonderful experience at WCSU in
this later stage of my life. In addition to having a great MFA program with
highly esteemed faculty, we were also exposed to such accomplished painters as
Stanley Lewis, William Bailey and Judy Glantzman." Linda aspires to show
her work more in the galleries of NYC in the near future. She hopes to share
her love of painting with college students as a professor. Linda shared that
she will be teaching a painting class locally starting in January of 2013.
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| Linda enjoys her family at a graduation celebration. |
After almost twenty
years as a designer, both graphic design and interior design, Linda has gone
back to her roots. She continues to paint and now plans to become a force in
the world of art as an artist, and as a teacher and mentor to others.
