The name Lou-Ann Lewis-Jackson is well known in local designing circles as she is one of the most accomplished local designers who is always round-the-clock busy, making her many customers happy.
And even though she spends almost all her days and part of her nights in the studio below her home creating style and fashion, the dreadlocked designer still found time to sit and chat with The Scene recently.
Art has always been in Lewis-Jackson’s blood, and as she puts it, “I did not find art, art found me,” since as a child she always loved to draw. It started as early as her nursery-school days, and the evidence is in her report cards which her mother kept and has since handed over to her, where the teachers would always comment that she was “very creative with her hands.”
While her father was the only person in her family who knew something about art and did art at A-Level, his career was accountancy, so there was no one for her to emulate. Drawing and painting were always her thing, although it was after she attended the Burrowes School of Art that she fell in love with textile and graphic arts, hence her career choice.
If it was not for her teacher, Sandra King, at the St Joseph High School Lou-Ann tells The Scene that she may have never gone to the art school. She recalls that she was always the “odd one out” during secondary school as she was the only girl who walked around with an art pad in her hands. “But I did not mind being the odd one out because I was kind of introverted and it suited me well; I just wanted to draw and I was not interested in the things girls were interested in,” she says. She feels she has come a very long way in the area of relating to people and this has happened because she was allowed to do art.
And in fact she was not even interested in any subject other than art, and was in the habit of escaping from her Mathematics and other classes and seeking sanctuary in the art department. She was always recued by Sandra King, who allowed Lou-Ann to remain in the department for the duration of the class she wanted to escape.
She recalls that Sandra King asked her what wanted she wanted to do after high school and she could not decide. At that point she was given an application form for the art school and told to take it home to her parents for their approval before applying. “Until then I did not even know the school existed,” Lou-Ann says with a laugh, “so I owe a lot to my teacher Sandra King.”
Her parents had plans for her future so when she informed them about studying art as can be imagined they were not happy; however, after some discussion they fully supported her, and “there was no turning back for me at that point.”
Hairstyle to suit
At the art school Lou-Ann studied fine arts and later went on to the University of Guyana where she read for a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts, with textile and graphic arts as her major and minor respectively.
“Textile art became the apple of my eye,” she tells The Scene. But she adds that textile and graphic arts are interlinked and it is with her expertise in both art forms that she creates her designs.
And it was at that point in her life that she decided to go dreads. “I am not a Rastafarian or anything, I just have dreadlocks,” she states when asked about the hairstyle. She recalls that as a child she had “a lot of hair and mom always had a problem combing it,” and so one day she just decided to have it all cut off and “I had this curly Afro.” A friend of hers had dreadlocks and she fell in love with the hairstyle and decided to go dreads, and while her parents again were not happy about that development, “Dad said it is the hairstyle for the kind of work I do.”
But it is not just designing that Lou-Ann does, she also teaches art to small children and is employed as the art teacher at Queen’s College. She also teaches functionally illiterate adults and has worked along with the Linden Economic Advancement Plan (LEAP).
However, it is from her designs that she makes her money, and she also does soft furnishings and interior decorating. And while she has participated in trade fairs, Lou-Ann says her clients are all locally based – “and I am busy all the time.”
“I don’t sleep! Sleeping for me is a luxury,” Lou-Ann reveals, stating that she spends all day working and is up at around 4 in the morning creating designs in her studio.
She does all of this coupled with being a mother of three children, aged 11, nine and seven. But the good thing is that her studio is beneath her home, so she always has a presence when her children are at home.
While curtains are seasonal, most of these orders being for the Christmas season, Lou-Ann says she gets orders for clothing all year round. “I have about eight or nine customers who come to me every month.”
And she not only decorates homes, but she has already done work for companies, such as Courts and Fogarty’s.
“Sometimes I would do two homes in a month, and then for four or five months I would do none.”
My calling
Lou-Ann describes what she does as her “calling,” as everything is just so easy it is like “clockwork.” “It is more like a hobby. I make money from something I love to do, I cannot do anything else. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I did not have that space to myself, my studio, to make my creations. And I had my own space from since as a child,” she says. She recalls that as a child her parents gave her a little corner to do her painting and drawing.
“I cannot imagine life without designing, I will go crazy.”
And she has no boundaries when it comes to designing, as she does evening and causal wear along with swimsuits and costumes.
Sentimental venue
Last Saturday evening at the Theatre Guild, Lou-Ann held a fashion show where she showcased her pieces and collaborated with her partner, Dean Jackson, a jeweller, who made jewellery to match her designs. “He always makes just what I want so everything went well and it was well attended.”
The show had sentimental value for Lou-Ann because of the venue where it was held; as a child she attended plays at the Theatre Guild. To show her appreciation for the restoration of the building, Lou-Ann auctioned one of her outfits which was sold for $11,000, while Gaskin & Jackson auctioned a sliver neck-wire and pendant with matching cufflinks, which were sold for $72,000. Both sums have been donated to the Theatre Guild for its maintenance.
Lou-Ann describes herself as a woman who is grounded and one who is artistic in every sense of the word; “I am passionate about what I do and comfortable in my skin.”
(Samantha_alleyne2000@yahoo.com)