Lynette Hensley BFA 92 Costume Design
Lynette explains her form of artistic expression, “I collage and paint on canvas and board and make 3D sculptures that I call my ‘actors.’ As an extension from my costuming designing, they all become a character or creature.”
Her unlikely introduction to costume came when she was working in the fabric department at a department store in Princeton, NJ. “A person from Princeton Ballet was looking for people to sew and I said, ‘I’d love to do that.'” Her first assignment was to sew the children’s mice costumes for The Nutcracker.
In 1985, her then husband got a job in Richmond at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (PSCE), so Lynette started working with the Richmond Ballet and TheatreVirginia as a stitcher. She also had young children.
Two years later, Lynette got breast cancer. She muses, “It does an interesting thing to people. It focused me on ‘if I’m going to die, what do I want to do?’ I decided I wanted to go to college.” When she interviewed at VCU with Liz Hopper (Head of Costumes), Lynette said that Liz had doubts, “because I was married and had three kids, but it worked!” During the interview for this profile, Lynette started to tear up when she recalled, “The biggest moment with Liz was at a portfolio review and she said, ‘You found your place.’ It was a big shift.”
Lynette graduated summa cum laude and moved to Atlanta to be with her family; her husband had taken a job there. When she got a divorce in 1995, she decided, “Based on my child, I couldn’t take her to tech week. So, I got involved with bridal alterations to make a living.” A year later she moved to Seattle and continued doing custom bridal work. She’s been making her living as a real estate agent since 1999.
This decision came after consideration. “I had to choose: Am I going to make art to sustain me or sustain myself so I’m free to make art. And that’s the path I chose. When you’re a designer, you’re making renderings, basically roadmaps for the costume shop, so it’s technical. Doing art for art sake is very different with no collaborative aspect.”
When Lynette was married the first time at 21, she and her first husband traveled around the Southern California coast in a 4-piece band, Spirit of Adoption. Now she and her current husband Larry also have a 4-piece band, Hounds at Bay, where they both get a chance to perform.
Compiled by Liz Hopper (professor emeritus) and Jerry Williams (BFA ’71) for the September 2022 Theatre Alumni newsletter