Meet Hillary Blakeley

WHAT INSPIRES YOUR WORK RIGHT NOW?

SUMMER! No but really.  Hannah and I spoke about this collection and we both wanted it to belong to its summertime launch date.  As a full-time working mom, I have been struggling with the idea of what “summer” looks like and will look like for my kids as opposed to my idyllic and free summers.  Daycare and camps vs days spent creating a fairy kitchen in the garden and seeing who could build the best drip castle on the beach. 

This collection started in remembrance to any structure of childhood summer with the only “required” activities being swim team practice and tennis clinics.  But as I looked around at our life now, I began to be inspired by the slow summer fun we’ve carved out of our modern life.  The orange umbrella that was always a beacon to my grandparent’s camp in Bethany Beach remains planted in the sand to draw in my kids.  Picking Maryland blue crabs while friends talk about cracking open lobsters in Maine.  Picturing tulips, my mom’s favorite flower, while watching my girls romp through our garden into the neighbor’s back yard in search of their ever-present popsicles. Mixing my prayer into my painting life as I read through the Psalms.  Bright summer colors, from the deep blue of a sweltering summer sky to the pink pops in fruit bowls and inner tubes, seem to jump out at me, begging to be captured.

The collection started more rigid with intentional lines and grids as seen in “A Day at the Courts” and “Swim Team” and gradually grew more playful and abstract as I grew inspired to capture the current joys of summer in works like “Pool Time” and “You Are There”.

 

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN A PIECE IS FINISHED?

When my husband comes in and says, “you should probably stop messing with that, it looks good” or Hannah says, “I have to post the collection, you have to stop working”.  Left to my own devices I would probably keep messing with the piece forever.

IN ONLY A FEW WORDS, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE?

Fluid.  Previous works of mine have seen me creating in extreme detail, trying to infuse realism into the work or capturing the light “just so”.   As I grow and release the need to control the medium (possible metaphor for life and the losing of control over my kids? Who knows, I’m not that deep) I am discovering the fun of slathering up my brush in paint and letting the layers and details get more abstract.  Of grabbing a paint pen and adding detail somewhat chaotically.  I think my style is, and will always be, evolving as the world inspires me and I push myself to create - not forcing the work, but to enjoy it. 

 

DID ANYTHING SHIFT OR SURPRISE YOU WHILE CREATING THIS COLLECTION?

Oh whoops, I probably already answered this in question 1.  But yes, I found a big shift as I moved from capturing the scheduled bits of summer to relaxing into the present and small joys of daily warm and sunny life.  As I removed the pressure from myself and my family of “summer” and what it looks like.  Perhaps as I moved from my years of using my engineering brain and reengaged my art brain.

 

WHO ARE SOME ARTISTS (PAST OR PRESENT) WHO INFLUENCE OR INSPIRE YOU?

I recently had the privilege of visiting the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and was in credibly inspired by the art of Monet, van Gogh, and Renoir.  I would argue having my breath taken away by this past great works is what drew me back to creating after having stepped away for a few years to pour myself into family and work.  Reentering the local art scene only furthered that inspiration.  We have such a wonderful and creative community in Virginia Beach! From muralists like Tessa Hall Duquette and 3D artists like Nikki Leone, to Monica Turley’s watercolors and Mallorie Terranova’s or Sarah Kohart’s pottery, how can you not be inspired and fall in love with art again and again?!

 

WHAT MATERIALS OR TECHNIQUES DO YOU MOST ENJOY USING, AND WHY?

My first true loves were oil pastels and pastel chalks.  Using blending stumps, my fingers, an old cloth; anything to blend the pastels together to make them come alive and make a massive mess.  I still deeply love this medium, managed to work some into this collection, and will come back more to it soon. 

 

STUDIO SOUNDTRACK: SILENCE, MUSIC, OR PODCASTS?

Music.  All day every day.  Headphones or blasting out of the multiple speakers my husband has installed in our home.

 

COFFEE OR TEA WHILE YOU WORK?

I would love to be this esoteric, but most of my “me” time for painting happens once my workday is complete, and I’ve gotten my kids in bed.  So, coffee or tea usually becomes a glass of water or wine depending on the type of day.  Do I immediately put it down, forget where it is, and absently accidentally take a sip of my brush washing cup? Absolutely.  Will I continue to make this highly avoidable mistake? Most likely.

 

WHAT’S ONE TOOL OR MATERIAL YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IN THE STUDIO?

I have two specific small brushes, a 4 mm chisel and ¼” angular, that I return to again and again and again.  The piece needs something else? Let me just see what these brushes can do…

 

FINISH THIS SENTENCE: “ART IS…”

Art is FUN!  Art is creative expression, it is relational, it is experiential! Getting messy and releasing into the fun and joy of it.  There is such little perfection in my day-to-day life, why wouldn’t my art reflect that?  Draw the wonky guy with different sized legs and a too small head.  Oh, that’s not really what an iris looks like? We don’t mind. Art and the creation process is fun.