BY CODY BROOKS | A look back at the enduring art and fashion of Linda St. John is wrapping up this weekend at the Umbrella Arts Gallery on E. Ninth St.
The dual pop-up shop and retrospective comes after three decades of St. John’s working in the East Village art world. In 1984 she moved to New York City from southern Illinois with the desire to engage in Downtown Manhattan’s busy art scene. She had a day job and used the evenings to work on getting a business going.
“I was a hard worker,” she said. “I never partied or took drugs, because I was trying to get my business off the ground.”
In 1985 she succeeded and opened up a shop on E. Seventh St., selling vintage designer clothing while making various art pieces and showcasing them in galleries around the city.
The clothing line, DL Cerney (with her husband Duane Cerney), featured designs from the ’30s through the ’60s, along with fabric that is reminiscent of the times.
“The clothes back then were so beautiful,” St. John said of those earlier eras, noting that today, finding clothing on par with that quality is difficult.
In 2012, however, St. John closed her shop. Rents were soaring, the shop was getting too cramped, and she and her family were fed up. The vibe of the East Village had changed, she said, from wild and crazy artists to a more subdued, richer crowd.
The family decided to move way out of the city to find some calm: a farm 50 miles west of Woodstock. She could continue her fashion line with more breathing room, in the company of her dogs and with a garden to tend. In 2015, when the 30-year anniversary of her local artistry came up, her friends who run Umbrella Arts, MaryAnn Fahey and Margaret Bodell, let her know that the gallery would be empty for July and August if she wanted to come down to the city again.
The art and fashion that St. John creates maintains the essence of her poor upbringing in rural southern Illinois. She described her situation as a child as “white trash.”
Having little money growing up, she found pleasure in the little things: the design of Wonder Bread packaging, or making clothes for her sisters when theirs became unusable. This transferred into her style, which she sums up as “trashing the concept of poverty” — meaning to find the beauty in everything. Her pet project is making girls’ dolls with repurposed materials for clothing; Egg McMuffin wrappers double as skirts, and old army sock fabric as purses. She travels the country holding workshops for children and shows them repurposing skills, such as sewing.
A sort of soft melancholy can be felt throughout St. John’s work. Her oil pastels feature dead black canvas with minimalist lines depicting nursing homes, carousels and young girls smiling together, but in a disquieting way, like a vaudeville gone wrong.
Linda St. John’s pop-up shop and retrospective will run through Sun., Aug. 30, at Umbrella Arts Gallery, 317 E. Ninth St., from noon till 8 p.m. every day.
