Lindsy Davis: Coffeeshop History Comes Full Circle

Though recent renovations have changed the face of the Ridgewood Coffee Company, on its freshly-painted walls a piece of its history has come full circle.

Four paintings by Lindsy Davis, whose late father Mike sold the coffeeshop on the corner in 2002, are hanging in the rear of the store. Underneath them, small hand-written labels display their price.

“The mountains [piece] is the most expensive one, having spent so much time on the concept and idea,” said Davis. “There’s a lot of complexity and hard work. It’s also the largest.”

Davis, 20, is entering her junior year at the School of Museum of Fine Arts, affiliated with Tufts University. After her father sold RCC, she worked at the Village Cafe.

“Sara [the owner of RCC] was really into the fact that my father used to own it, she was really into showing off the art,” Davis said. “There’s a history behind it.”

“We liked the idea that her dad owned the shop,” said Sara Paleewong, who co-owns the coffeeshop with her husband Jan. “He basically built the clientele. We were so grateful that she would be part of the shop again.”

The four paintings, all structureless and colorful, differ widely in style and pallette. They are a sign of her family’s lasting impact on the store. 

“The three on the bottom are more pouring buckets of paint,” said Davis, pointing to the back wall. “It was more me getting rid of the typical process of painting where you spend so long on one layer of perfection.”

Davis said the paintings represented her effort to let the paint speak for itself, and to allow gravity and chance to manipulate the outcome of the work. 

“I didn’t want to have as much connection or reliance on creating my own process of the image,” she added. 

Most prominent is a four-foot expanse of canvas, a mountain landscape abstractly colored with stripes and repeating geometric shapes. 

“The mountain piece is about a cross-country road trip. I was blown away with the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas,” said Davis. “I juxtapose the random, natural gesture of the mountains with the very concentrated patterns you see.”

Davis has seen her pieces published in the magazine Everything is Art, and participates regularly in school art shows. After college, she plans to support herself entirely through her work. 

“I don’t want to be any type of art educator, just an artist,” she said. “Hopefully I can make a career out of it.”

She can be e-mailed at lindsy.davis@yahoo.com and reached by phone at (201) 891-9287. A selection of her work can be seen online at www.lindsydavis.carbonmade.com