Niger RPCV Lindsey Rust is Mask Artist
Lindsay Rust:
Rhythm Arts Foundation / Dancing Drum, Santa Barbara, CA. www.lindsayrust.com
Lindsay Rust is an artist whose work is inspired by three primary ideas: beauty, human history, and dreams. She is a mask maker and theatrical designer. She also illustrates, paints murals, writes, performs, and teaches. For the past several years, however, masks have captivated most of her imagination, time, and energy. Her mask work has drawn the attention of many admirers. Most significantly, the Discovery Channel featured Rust's masks in a 15-minute segment on the Lynette Jennings Design series. Lynette interviewed Rust in her Mission Canyon tree-house studio while Rust demonstrated her unique approach to mask making.
After college, Rust signed up with the Peace Corps. She was sent to Niger, West Africa - the one country on the continent revered for its exquisite silversmithing tradition. After serving as a community development agent for 1 1/2 years in a Songhai-Djerma village on the banks of the Niger River she moved to the capital city, Niamey. She became friends with a master silversmith named BŽbŽ and began an apprenticeship with him at the National Museum Artisan Workshop. In the five months she spent there, she learned to make jewelry and metal sculptures as they have been made in this region of Africa for hundreds of years, using traditional materials, local metals, and handmade tools. While in Niamey, Rust also studied with a Guinean maskmaker who taught her the basics of wood sculpting in ebony and mahogany. After the Peace Corps, Rust continued her African travels, visiting Benin, Togo, Ghana, Guinea, and Burkina Faso.
Rust's Solstice masks attracted the attention of Boxtales Theatre Company - a local storytelling troupe based out of the Lobero Theatre. She has also worked with the Santa Barbara Baroque Dance Company, freelance photographers, and numerous small theatre troupes.Most recently, Rust has been designing masks for Dancing Drum Productions, a music/theatre troupe that performs original stories based around African drumming. She also performs with Dancing Drum.
