Today we’d like to introduce you to Hoppy Highhat.
Hoppy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am a relative newcomer on the scene as a painter. Altho having spent many years making art in numerous mediums I had given up any attempts at painting in my early 20s. In fact, I am no spring chicken but have only been painting since Dec 2018, and that’s only because I needed a Christmas gift urgently, That’s when I pulled out the acrylic paints stashed away since my college days and decided to give it another go. What happened is that I discovered quickly just how fun painting is and I found out that I could manipulate the medium and the colors rather well. This would be based on my years of experience working in Polymer clays making jewelry and in re-mixing gallons and gallons of “oops” paints from home improvement stores while renovating several Airbnb properties.
Shortly after “the Christmas gift” painting I also began decorating a 1960s home using thrift-found items from the period to create a time-warp living experience. (It turned out beautifully!) But once the home was completed, I was left with several old, over-the-sofa, framed reproduction “artworks”; the kind that would have been purchased at a furniture store or perhaps a K-Mart in the day. Just on a whim, I decided to paint on one of these classic vintage pieces to try and give it new life and express a new narrative – my own story, something I needed to share right then. Drawing from personal experiences I made more, added some emotionally connected imagery and called them my “objects d’heart’, I made up my mind to paint these feelings by interjecting curiously realistic objects of significance in a surreal scale to these stayed idillic settings… and a new passion was born. This became a wonderfully cathartic experience for me, to emote using paint to make a very personal statement, one that had no words I felt could be spoken in the day-to-day of life. This became the medium through which I could divulge all my emotions, something that had eluded me when confronted with a mere blank canvas. I was now obsessed with painting!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Haha, is there a road? I’m pretty much scratching out a path each day, trying to see where my art leads. I’ve done pop-up shows, arts and crafts fairs, I sell at antique malls and try having an online presence but it’s hard when there’s only one me and I’ve had to spend time just making my paintings and working to reproduce it to sell! The artist doing everything herself has been a mighty hard row to hoe. I’m still struggling to know where a person is to turn when creating non-functional art, unlike the “functional art” I made for so many years of my life before painting. I struggled plenty enough selling architectural stained glass which I designed and built for 2/3rds of my life. I hustled up quite a business and was what you’d call “successful”, I made wonderfully large installed “art glass” works for many Nashville landmarks and the homes of the stars (plus many, many other’s homes) in Nashville (and in Austin the decade I lived there) and I made a lot of people very happy too but it’s always financially a challenge as an artist. I have made thousands of pieces of art in many mediums too numerous to count because I’m great with ideas and I crank them out when inspired, but being a businesswoman is clearly not my forte’. So I guess I’d hafta say that’s surely been my toughest “struggle”… Making my work actually make a decent living.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a painter of one-of-a-kind, upcycled vintage art, creating a new narrative onto classic, old litho reproduction prints that were once a staple decorating item in most American homes of the mid-century era. You could say that I make Updated Americana Art because it’s recognizably familiar from the American life. Since I began making these works, I’ve discovered this is a somewhat new genre of art out there with a few very clever people making fun and funny reworked paintings but I believe what makes me stand apart is that my imagery is always based on an emotion I’m compelled to get out, These ideas are expressed from personal experiences and never put on there just for a gag – altho laughs are often evoked by my work. However self-effacing, I always paint from the joys and the heartaches of my own rich life experiences, which has been marked by great love and great loss. These paintings have become my emotional outlet. Unlike other art, I’ve made in the past. Having had the good fortune of working for years in many other mediums before painting: i.e., drawing, graphic design, sculpting, sewing, ceramics, home decorating, guitar making, furniture restoration and more, I channel that technical knowledge into this new medium, along with the emotional content, which gives it even greater depth. I also always create my art with a goal of making things enjoyable to look at. Having had a front-row seat to some of the best art ever, from childhood on, I’ve learned that visual pleasure reaches every heart and that’s my ultimate aim, whatever I’m working on,
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I come from a family in which my mother, my father and my three older brothers are/were all super-talented artists of noted acclaim. Both of my parents had their professional studios in our home so as the youngest child, I saw amazing talent that was miles above me – and I loved it! Thus, I’ve spent the greater part of my life admiring artists who painted but gave up any thoughts of painting for myself after a minimal fore’ in college, disappointed at my lack of skill and knowledge of the medium. Clearly a hasty decision, I see now, yet being from my family (with the fate of birth order and all), it was very hard to feel I could ever achieve working at a level anywhere near that which I had seen night and day in my own home, So at 20 years old I decided that I wouldn’t even try painting again and in fact I never so much as joined in when my own children pulled out the paints just for fun. I was positively sure I could not paint and often proclaimed that “fact”, so I would say that it might be surprising looking at my art now to find that I was too intimidated to even try painting until I reached 61 years old. I suppose age will do that to ya though. I’ve become a lot less fearful and a lot more willing to just do it and see what happens… and I’d say it’s turned out pretty okay!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hoppyhighhat/
- Facebook: facebook.com/hoppyhighhatart
Image Credits
Hoppy Highhat
