Meet Lily Tice

Hello! My name is Lily Tice and I’m delighted to be an intern for the Harrison Center for the next seven weeks. I first heard of the Harrison Center when Joanna Taft gave a speech on creative placemaking. I wasn’t pursuing art in my career yet, so I wasn’t sure how I could get involved with the work the Harrison Center is doing, but I knew that if I could, I would love to someday, because it’s the kind of work I’ve wanted to do since I was little.

Growing up, one of the most prominent influences in my life was my dad's job as an interior designer. I spent a lot of time in his office, stealing scraps from the fabric closet, exploring clients’ homes, and cutting out glossy pages from furniture magazines to use as paper doll furniture. I had a wonderful dollhouse that my grandfather built for my mom when she was a kid, and I filled it with odds and ends from my dad’s shop. I wanted to be a dollhouse interior designer-- a professional nester and miniature storyteller.

As an adult, homes have become a recurrent image in my art, especially my comics. Dollhouses are tiny stages, after all-- rooms to fill with tiny, complete universes. So are comics-- they’re dollhouses on a page, compartmentalized stories parsed in panels, and novels played out in pencil and pen. They are a portable shelter, a moving castle, a hiding place for micro-stories.

While I’m in Indianapolis, I will be exploring the concept of home as a stage to reconcile the past and future-- remembrance through preenactment. More specifically, I want to share the stories of longtime residents of the Monon 16 neighborhood through comics, animations, and writing.

I’m originally from Augusta, GA, but moved to Chattanooga, TN to pursue a degree Creative Writing. I graduated in 2018, and apart from furiously scribbling comics and making wobbly animations, I spend most of my time working in a small local toyshop in downtown Chattanooga, which I now call home.

Lily's internship is graciously made possible by the Speck Fund.