Alum’s Gallery Features “Art of the Heart”

The life-changing experience was a film-making opportunity offered by a college classmate in 1974. The film was about an elderly African American barber and artist in Columbus. The man was unknown to Lindsay, but he soon became aware of the extraordinary wood carvings of Elijah Pierce. Before Pierce's death in 1984, he became internationally recognized for the creativity and universal themes in his carvings.

Fifteen years later, Lindsay, a long-time art collector, decided it was time to pursue his passion. Today the Lindsay Gallery, located in Columbus's trendy Short North area of shops, restaurants, and galleries, displays the works of folk artists that typically work in passed-down traditions, like that of Pierce. Lindsay says, "These artists create art from a calling, a passion, often one they cannot explain. I call it 'the art of the heart, not the brain.'"

Lindsay's most rewarding experience "happens every time I see a new client 'open their eyes' to what it means to become a collector, owning original art. Living with it brings rewards every day. The art becomes like batteries in the home, giving those who love it and understand it a charge of energy and creativity every time they look at it."

Lindsay says his humanities education taught him about who we are and why we do the things we do and studying film as a communications tool helped sensitize him to the importance of visual communication, whether it be film, painting, or a sculpture. When he graduated with a B.A. in a Personalized Study Program, he was working as a part-time contract producer of educational, medical, and technical films for OSU. Later he was hired at WBNS TV to produce a children's news program, and then joined the news department as a film cameraman. He eventually became a producer of medical and health programming. During his successful career in television, he was awarded two local Emmy Awards, an Associated Press Award, and the Bronze Award at the Columbus International Film Festival. It appears his current career has proven to be just as rewarding.