I've recently had the pleasure of stumbling across Hillary Werth's art creations on her Instagram page. So we decided to reach out to her for our second installment of Artist Highlights. Hillary was kind enough to answer our questions and provide us some awesome pictures of her most recent creations.
(courtesy of Hillary Werth Art)
-What is your background in art?
I’ve been creating art ever since I was a kid. My parents got me an easel for my birthday when I was in elementary school, and it’s been something I’ve done all my life. I really was drawn to street and pop art.
I dropped out of grad school to try out for the US bobsled team and while I was training as a member of the US national bobsled team, I was missing the craving to create. So some athletes at the US training center had me paint their skeleton sleds, helmets and a biathlon rifle and this opened me up to painting on sports equipment and now I’m painting baseball bats for MaxBats.
It’s funny how the environment you are in or once was can create
-Where did you study and how did it influence you?
Going to college in LA really opened my eyes up to street art I’d never seen before. So that played a major influence in how and what I wanted to create. I was a heptathlete at UCLA so majoring in studio art wasn’t possible due to my track practice and training schedule. I studied and majored in art history, which helped me figure out what kind of art I wanted to create. It helped me figure out what intrigued me. I feel as though I have studied art a lot more than what I have created up until this point.
I took a year off after I graduated and then attended grad school at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln) to pursue a masters in art education. I wanted to teach. My attention was really set on sculpting and painting while in grad school.
-What medians do you like working with?
My paintings and creations are mostly mixed media composed of spray paint, acrylic, oil pastels, and ink. Part of my studio is a wood shop and the other half is for painting, so I build everything I paint on from scratch.
-What artist inspires you?
I’m very much inspired by Françoise Nielly. Her paintings move me beyond what words can describe. She is a portrait painter, which obviously I am not. But I have a great appreciation for painters and pieces that portray the human anatomy. They inspire me. I’m really into basic anatomical charcoal and pencil drawings. The raw unfinished in progress captions of creations inspire me. Connor Harrington is amazing. He is a contemporary artist combining graffiti like paintings with realistic portraits. His use of color, composition, and balance are breath taking. Something about looking at his paintings inspire me to create, to be daring, to try new things. I come across things and people that inspire me every day so I have an open tab in the ‘inspiration’ category…
-Where are you based now?
I currently reside and create in my home studio at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.
To learn more about what Hillary is creating, make sure to follow her on her social media outlets.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hillarywerthart
Instagram: @hillarywerthart
Twitter: @hillarywerthart
Make sure to check out some of her latest works here:
(courtesy of Hillary Werth Art)