Interview by Emma Freeman
I have never once called Bambi by her real name in my life. Even after living together and being friends for over 10 years. So to me, she’s just Bambi. She’s always been the most graceful skater and immensely talented artist. I’m not sure if there’s an art medium she can’t do. It’s rare that skaters find stable jobs in this industry, but with her skills, Bambi has found one as the Creative Director for Riedell Skates. I decided to pair her with our Sprite Emma Freeman for this interview to see what I might learn about my longtime friend through someone else’s lens. —Karli Craig
Where are you from and how long have you been skating?
Right now, I live in Des Moines, Iowa, originally from the Chicago area. I have been skating since 2011, when I joined roller derby.
What inspired you to go from derby to park skating?
When I started derby, I fell in love with roller skating itself very deeply, and I could not get enough time on my skates. So, I was outside of practice, skating around the city I lived in at the time, skating the trails, and I would always pass a skatepark when I was out. I just started thinking, Well, there’s no reason I couldn’t take roller skates in there. I put two and two together and thought, I’m going to go in there and try it. I was really scared because I hadn’t seen anybody do it before, and I was even Googling: Can you roller skate at a skatepark? I saw a video of Estro Jen in a bowl and was like, Okay, there is at least one person doing this. Eventually, I worked up the nerve to go in there and the rest was history.
What is the roller skate scene like out there now?
In 2020, there was a small little crew of people coming out and it felt like we had a little energy going around it, but sadly, it’s really dropped off over the last couple years, and currently the scene is pretty small. There’s only a couple roller skaters skating in the skatepark where I live now, which is a shame because we have an amazing skatepark. It needs an energy boost, for sure.
Who do you usually go with?
Usually either myself or with my partner. There’s a small group of inliners that come out, so occasionally we’ll bump into them, but honestly, in my hometown, it’s a pretty solitary endeavor. But I am really thriving off roller skating events right now. I’ll travel far to go to comps or fun camps and things because that’s my way to experience it in real life. I need to do some more work in my hometown to create spaces to bring people together.
It’s awesome that you put in the effort to go find the community where you can. Do you feel that you’re an artist first or a skater first?
Oh, wow. Maybe I would say artist, just because I have been doing that longer. Since childhood, I’ve loved drawing and art, but then I started skating in the ‘90s on Rollerblades, so it’s all very intertwined. I see skating as art, just another form of art. So, artist.
How would you describe the overlap between your skating and your art?
Both things, skating and art, have worked their way into being my profession, but they are also both my hobby, passion, and love. With both skating and art, I love exploration. I love the freedom. I try to just do what feels good and things that I like doing. Because they’re so entwined in my job, too. For my hobby time, I have to take the pressure off and just do it for fun. With both, I love the flow of them. I’m exploring things, but then there’s also form and technicality. So I like things that are structured and I like the shapes that we make with our bodies in skating. I’m a person who’s kind of a perfectionist and tends towards technicality, but doing things in a really loose and flowy way.
Hearing you say you love the shapes we make when we skate, I can see that in your art for sure. What would you say inspires you to get out and skate versus what inspires you to create art?
What inspires me to go out and skate is I love being outside, so any opportunity to leave my home and enjoy nature at the skatepark or on a trail, I love that. But the skating is so kinetic and body-based. It allows me to really get into my body and push it to do things, get my heart rate up, do scary things. Through roller skating, I get to meet fear in a way, the adrenaline rush and getting in the flow state through a kinetic way. But I also just love weekends at home where I get to sit with my paints and my pens, and that is not body, that’s more contemplative maybe, or cerebral. I kind of disconnect from my noisy brain in a quieter way through image creation. They’re both meditative in different ways.
So when you’re feeling like you need that meditation, it could push you to do either or.
Yeah, it’s like you’re getting to the same place, but through different vehicles.
So I noticed a theme of quilts in your art, which I find to be very cozy and wholesome. Do you feel like that describes a little bit of your personality?
Definitely, yeah. The quilting I’ve gotten into more recently. Honestly, since I moved to Iowa, there’s these things called barn square quilts that I started noticing and being like, “Wow, that’s so cool.” So I started looking into quilting, and I grew up with a mom who taught me to sew. My mom quilted, but I didn’t care. I thought it was lame. But ever since I noticed it on the barns, I got plugged into the modern quilting movement and saw that there’s people doing it now in a fresh way that’s not like a boring granny quilt. I realized that quilting is basically graphic design, playing with shapes and geometry and colors, so it really spoke to me from a graphic design background. But there’s something I love about it. There’s so much tradition in quilting, and gosh, that cozy homeness you mentioned too, for sure. I love exploring quilting in different ways like sewing them together, but then also drawing them, collaging them with paper, bringing in different imagery to it. Something I love about quilting is that it is made up of these quintessential blocks, basic shapes and forms that have been passed down through the ages and are continually being remixed, reformulated, and evolving in time. I think that is perfectly parallel in the world of skating and action sports. I love the way movements are shared, innovated upon and reimagined by each generation, the way different gears or modes of rolling influence the movement. It’s fascinating and so beautiful to me.
I’ve heard you mention physically quilting, digital art, doing things on paper. What is your span of mediums, and what’s your favorite?
I am a sampler; I do this in skating, too! I do not like to stick to one discipline. With art I do illustration, painting, drawing, printmaking, letterpress, silk screens, fiber arts, sewing, but then I also appreciate dance and theater and all these other things, too. But my favorite is just doodling. At the start of the year, I said I was going to draw every day, and I have been doing that! With doodling there’s a lack of pressure, just playing in my journals and notebooks, that’s where I’m having fun.
What’s your least favorite? Have you sampled something that you were like, “I’m never doing that again.”
I’m a graphic designer and it’s like I literally sit on a computer all day, but I would say digital art probably is my least favorite. I love working with my hands. So when I was in design school, I was trying to find every opportunity to incorporate collage or make typography by hand drawing as opposed to using a font. And I think my struggle with the computer is just, there’s a disconnect. It loses that handmade element, and organizing files digitally…
So, since that’s part of work for you, that might add to it feeling like a drag?
Yes, because I spend all day doing graphic design on the computer. When I have free time, I’m like, “Get me away from this scene.”
I love that you said you’re a sampler and you feel that way with skating, too. How would you describe that perspective within your skating?
Well, I started in roller derby, immediately started ramp skating within that year, and I like to do long distance, too. I like to inline skate, both aggressive and distance. I’m taking ice skating lessons right now. I love to go to the roller rink and dance skate. I love learning new things. I like being in that beginner position where you have so much on your list to learn. I love that feeling of opportunity being out there, things to master.
Being a beginner and trying new things is usually what scares people and where sports will lose people. It’s awesome that it appeals to you so much! There’s a lot of color, or color schemes, in your art. If you had to describe your art with a season, what would you choose?
Ooh, I’m definitely a fall person, but my art does have a lot of springy or summery colors. I love pastels and the bright and whimsical, but then I love earthy tones, too.
I can see that there’s a thoughtful process behind you settling in on what colors you want to be in a final product.
Yeah. Color exploration comes from graphic design. I love making color palettes. And sometimes it comes about in different ways. Usually there’ll be one or two key colors that I’m like, “Okay. I’m really feeling this color. What can I pair with this that’s complimentary and unexpected?” I love unexpected color palettes too, where you’re like, “Oh, I wouldn’t have thought to put those together,” but…
But then it all works.
Sometimes.
What is the backstory behind your username, Bambi Bloodlust?
That was my first derby name! I wanted something that was cute, but vicious.
What is your dream product collaboration?
I think designing graphics for a helmet would be such a fun project. As an object, it’s a great canvas. I think I would just have an impossible time choosing what to put on it, the possibilities are endless. I’ve been meaning to do some painting on mine… right now, I’m the creative director of Riedell. And then with Moxi, I get to do some of their product design, too! So those are all dream jobs, to be honest.
I noticed your sketches of boots, do you feel like that comes from a design perspective or more of just drawing, just freeform?
Both. Yeah. Because of my work I’m thinking about the aesthetics and shapes of a boot a lot and just functionally have had to quickly sketch boots to explain ideas and concepts. But also, I think it’s a beautiful object and shape, so I’m also exploring adding them in my art more, and it’s just something I love and something my brain fixates on, but god, skates are hard to draw.
Do you reference one or is it just off the top of your head?
I love drawing from references, but then I also love doing non-reference drawings and seeing what comes out of that, because a lot of times you’re going to get messed up proportions or things aren’t going to be how they truly appear, but there’s beauty in that. I’ve come to terms with loving imperfections and embracing that instead of trying to realistically depict something all the time.
Photo: Lenny Gilmore
With the aspect of nature and floral designs in your art, what’s the context of this muse?
Plants, gardening, and nature are big sources of inspiration. At home I have a garden filled with plants, and I’m usually sitting out there looking at them. I think growing things can feel like witchcraft! There’s magic to it. My drawings go with the seasons, what’s around me, and sometimes it’s winter greens like kale and sticks, but then in the spring it’s tulips, and then strawberries in the summer and flowers blooming everywhere. I do try to draw the little things I’m growing as a way to hold onto them… because they come and they pass. It’s a way to keep them forever in a little doodle.
I love that you said growing things feels like witchcraft, that is just a phenomenal quote, and it’s true, there’s a little bit of power in there.
Yes. I think seeds are the most magical things in the world, they’re all different, but every little individual seed is a work of art, and they all have this code, they have this thing that they’re going to become, and you get to put the water on them and nurture them and see the variety that mother god has put in these seeds and bring… that is endlessly fascinating to me. So I love observing that drawing, seeing that in skating, planting seeds and watching what it becomes. It is crazy. As someone who’s seen this playing out for over a decade now, it’s so cool to watch all those little seeds grow all across the globe and what this has turned into. It’s cool.
Yeah, what a great metaphor and rounding it all out, perfect.
There we go.
