Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Hailstones.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started painting as a hobby and kind of as a form of therapy back in 2017. I’ve always struggled with anxiety and depression issues and my extremely boring job in a windowless office sure wasn’t helping. Painting seemed like a fun outlet for my stress and I ended up getting really into it.
I had never taken an art class or anything, and I spent a lot of time messing around with different things I found at the craft store and practicing techniques I found on Youtube. I started taking it more seriously around 2019 when I finally began to develop my own voice. At that point, I felt more comfortable sharing my work with others and I started exhibiting in small local art shows.
As I taught myself more and grew more confident in my work I started seeking out more opportunities and I ended up landing a licensing deal with a national brewery to put my artwork on their beer cans. Once COVID hit, I was immediately laid off from my office job and decided to make art my full-time job instead.
I’ve started exhibiting my work in galleries around the country and I now sell paintings to people all over the world through my website.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been anything but smooth. Art comes with a lot of challenges. My art feels really personal and it can be difficult to open up and be so vulnerable in public. People can be very judgemental and I sometimes get nasty comments about my work. My paintings are very abstract and a lot of people scoff at the prices I charge and like to tell me their child can do what I do.
The artworld is also super competitive and filled with snobs. At my first ever public showing in Jacksonville, the woman running the show initially accepted my work to hang then changed her mind later without telling me. I showed up to the opening so excited about it only to find out my paintings had been carelessly tossed on the floor out of sight. She lectured me about the quality of my work and I went right home and cried.
It was hard to force myself to keep going after that, but looking back it was a really pivotal experience for me that changed how I approached my career. Even now that my work and career have evolved so much, I still get rejected from shows all the time! I’ve had to learn not to take anything too personally.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in acrylic and mixed media abstract paintings. I’m known for using a lot of very bright saturated colors that remind some people of the Lisa Frank folders every girl at school had in the 1990s. My work is highly abstracted and meant to reflect the inner workings of my mind.
I use art almost as a form of journaling, but instead of writing about my feelings, I translate them into colors and shapes and lines and textures on the canvas, almost forming little maps of my brain. I’m probably best known for the work that I create for a Wisconsin-based brewery called Untitled Art. They tell me about a new beer or seltzer they’re brewing and I create unique can artwork inspired by the flavors they’re using.
These cans get distributed all over the world and have really helped me gain a much wider audience. I have created art for several of their cans now and it never stops being extremely weird and cool to see my work in the hands of people all over the world. It’s an incredible feeling to see my art being distributed widely in such a unique way.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
There’s a really great community of female artists on Facebook called The Art Queens that has been a great resource for me. It’s helpful to have other people like me answer my questions about the world or bounce ideas off of it.
There’s also a podcast called “Create!” from Create magazine that I enjoy. It is full of helpful advice for creatives.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: artbyhailstones.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/nevertoomanycolors
