Lindsay Luise Abromaitis-Smith (she/her) is a witch, artist, herbalist, writer, and pleasure activist living with ALS. She is dedicated to creating beauty, sharing stories and rituals, and crafting herbal remedies that help people rediscover their wholeness and what is essential to being. As she continues to learn how to physically manifest differently, Lindsay hopes to teach others that being differently abled can be pleasureful and powerful while also being an act of acceptance and surrender. Her art practice is currently focusing on painting and drawing using her feet. Her spiritual practices are based in reciprocity with the earth and honoring the ancient ones, the elements, the plants, and the fae. She is the mother of two small and fierce tigers and loves having people over for tea.
Lindsay began her artistic career in puppetry and performance. After living and working in NYC for 12 years, Lindsay moved to New Jersey in early June 2015. She is living as an artist in residence at the Toshiko Takaezu Studio in Quakertown, NJ.
In 2012, shortly before she was diagnosed with ALS, Lindsay debuted two puppet works in NYC. Epyllion, came about through a three year artist residency program at HERE Arts Center, for which she received a Jim Henson Project Grant. Mental Hygiene (what makes brains dirty and how to get them clean) was a part of Labapalooza at St. Ann's Warehouse.
For the first few years after her diagnosis, Lindsay worked on Bloom, She is Descending. The piece began as a one woman show about Lindsay's exploration of ALS: "The night before I was diagnosed with ALS, I dreamed of a goddess made entirely of flowers and plants who told me I had to learn how to physically manifest differently. People ask me how it feels. This is my answer.” The piece has had many iterations and was workshopped at Dixon Place in NYC and The Tigermen Den, in New Orleans. The most recent version at Five Myles Gallery in December 2014, incorporated dance, puppetry, video, and sculpture installation.
Her writing on ritual through puppetry and the use of the idol in art was published in The New York Arts Magazine's summer 2011 issue.