Lane Bestold is a self-taught, emerging textile artist based in Seattle, WA. A queer transman, he challenges traditional stereotypes of masculinity through his practice of sewing, quilting, and evoking literal and figurative softness in his work. Lane recently stopped by the Frye to chat with Museum Store Assistant Manager Caitlyn Edson about his practice, his community, what’s new, and what’s next over sparkling waters in the Café. Read on for more about this incredible artist and his original commission for the Store.
When you find yourself in the Museum Store these days, the first thing your eyes will fix on is an original work of art in the alcove space. It’s a burst of color and texture—a gleaming collage of fabrics swirling inside a transparent square vessel, and with hand-sewn details and batting meant to be considered instead of tucked away. This is a quilt unlike any you have seen before. Lane Bestold, our Winter 2025 Alcove Artist, created this original piece with many elements of his ethos in mind. Titled Sunshine Salad, the quilt is a call back to his Midwestern roots and memories of a legendary combination of shredded carrots and pineapple suspended in orange Jello served at family gatherings.
These days, Lane’s family is defined by the chosen and community-grown circle of comrades, lovers, and creative collaborators that bring joy and fullness to his life here on the West Coast—a world away from the small town in Illinois where he is from. “My family, my community here is absolutely incredible,” says Lane, a smile beaming across his face. “I have a huge network of friends and lovers and babes and yeah, it's really great.” Lane recently celebrated ten years of living in Seattle, having arrived here by way of Chicago. He reflects that it took time to really settle in and find his place. “I think the reason why I didn't meet my community right away was because I wasn't sure who I was yet,” he says. “I had to figure it out, get more comfortable with myself, with my gender and sexuality. And once I started coming into that, it also allowed me the space to make art."
Photo: Sora Blu
Photo: Rachael Lang
Lane’s work—colorful, loud, joyful, and subversive—was born out of an era of isolation and metamorphosis during the height of the pandemic. This practice is still deeply informed by accessibility and his signature brand of thrift-minded scrappiness. “I can take my practice anywhere,” Lane says about the beauty of being able to sew by hand in third spaces like coffee shops, happily out in the open among his neighbors and friends. In his practice, Lane is drawn to discarded materials, seeing value in repurposing fabrics and scraps that are sourced secondhand. He also explains that when he first started teaching himself how to sew, utilizing recycled fabrics simply offered an entry point to his process he couldn’t have accessed in other mediums. “You only need one piece of fabric, one needle, and thread,” he says.
Sunshine Salad, Lane’s commission for the Store Alcove, is a transparent quilt that embodies his commitment to giving discarded elements new life while imbuing large scale work with character and depth. The quilt is made with polyester curtains as its top and backing, and “batting” created by using a plethora of materials including mesh, cotton jersey remnants, metallic “yarn,” neon sportswear, hot pink lace lingerie, blue velvet, a stained white dress shirt, rhinestones, sweatshirt material, a zippered bag, rain resistant fabric, cotton scraps, cotton thread, silk thread, and polyester thread. The piece transforms with light and shadows depending on where it is hung, making it akin to a living thing; it’s full of layers with swaths of transparency, lightness, humor, and some heaviness too, just like Lane.
“I was in a really fucking rough place when I made this,” says Lane, considering Sunshine Salad, “but you would never know looking at it. You would never know.” He explains that sourcing transparent fabrics in his quilt work has prompted a continued practice of deep self-reflection. Despite the apparent lightness of the work, its creation was forged out of “a dark place of trying to understand myself, and allowing myself to. I’m making these transparent pieces for me,” he says. Inspired by the dichotomy of light and dark, Lane likes the idea of creating work that appears, and in many ways is, humorous and effervescent, but that also signals a deeper subtext. Part of Lane’s process is the acknowledgement that every piece he creates is an extension of himself—a proud, queer transman living in America in 2025—and every messy, miraculous multitude he contains.
When Lane reflects on the past year of art making, he traces a path of powerful personal growth and takes pride, still somewhat hesitantly, in just how much he has achieved. He describes a current project in which he’s taking slogans like TRANS PRIDE, TRANS POWER, and incorporating them into his work alongside imagery pulled from 1960s and 1970s-era protest signs. “I feel like my art has always been an extension of who I am,” he says, “and my art is getting very loud with the things that it says.” As Lane’s practice continues to grow, one can expect to see the manifestation of his beliefs and values—such as advocating for the liberation of marginalized groups from state violence—emblazoned on large-form textiles, ultimately pushing the boundaries of what contemporary quilting seeks to achieve.
Called to this work from a place of intuitive necessity, Lane doesn’t plan to forge ahead alone, but rather in a growing community of activism-driven artists. He recently completed a project with friend and fashion designer Siobhan Teahan of New Affection in which they sourced textile squares from more than seventy-five makers and pieced together a community quilt to raffle off for mutual aid. “The coolest part about it was that we had three different in-person sessions and there were seasoned sewists and embroidery artists,” he explains. “There were some people that I taught how to thread a needle for the first time. There were people there that were giving lessons on how to use a machine. It was this skill sharing experience that reminded all of us that we can come together and make a difference.”
Photo: Lauren Max
Community quilt project led by Lane Bestold and Siobhan Teahan
Photo: Sora Blu
Photo: Sora Blu
With a new art studio, a second residency at Sou’Wester under his belt, and plans to create a bigger and more impactful community quilt next year, Lane’s future artistic endeavors promise to be louder than ever before. When asked what’s next for him, Lane pauses, and laughs, “I want to make things that are huge!” For so long, Lane’s work has been confined to the shape and size of his small apartment floor or what he could tote along to coffee shops, where he loves to set up and sew. His practice, a completely self-taught and grounding force in his life, is flourishing in the presence of genuine community and a growing audience that wants to hear what he has to say. And Lane Bestold definitely has something to say.
Sunshine Salad (2025) by Lane Bestold is on view and for sale in the Museum Store Alcove until June 28th.
Photos: Lane Bestold, Lauren Max, Rachael Lang, Sora Blu