Alicia Decker Elissa Breitbard

Lu Kynn is the Portland, Oregon-based art duo of Alicia Decker and Elissa Breitbard. They use hand-dyed and painted cotton, linen and hemp spliced with repurposed interior and fashion remnants to create one-of-a-kind pieced and collaged compositions.  Beyond this shared love of color, pattern and textiles, Decker and Breitbard believe in the connective power of cloth and celebrate the past lives and stories infused in the threads of their art.

Their collaboration relies on their complementary backgrounds with  Decker’s as a fiber artist, printer, textile designer and university educator and Breitbard’s in sustainable fashion, ethical US soft-goods manufacturing, fabric dyeing,  and digital textile printing. Decker’s work has been shown both nationally and internationally; she is a PhD candidate researching textiles as a means for social justice and is on the Board of Directors of the Surface Design Association. Breitbard views the work she does with Lu Kynn a full-circle expression of her: past work in circular and sustainable economies, life’s mission to bring comfort to others (as a former spa owner and immigrant/refugee teacher), and decades long passion for textiles.

LuKynn’s embrace of sustainable, regenerative practices is at the core of their thoughtful and intentional fiber compositions.  Their nuanced art medium— community sourced then reworked remnants—is what gives their art life. The discarded fabrics used, such as a handed down pair of pants, an old curtain, or factory floor scraps, come with a history that is imbued in their work.

Through an intentional, slow process of gathering, sorting, dyeing, painting, patterning, and composing, Lu Kynn celebrates sustainable creative practices, and the art of community. Lu Kynn is part of an intricate textile cycle—layered over time, space, land and people. Their hope is that breathing new life into old, as well as the inherent human connection, is felt in every composition.

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