Heather Lacy combines two passions into one
Necessity was the mother of invention long before Frank Zappa coined the proverb as a band name—a perfect example of this is the work of Heather Lacy, whose career as an artist has been punctuated by real world needs.
When she was a kid, Lacy told her parents that she was going to be an artist when she grew up.
“I always drew in school, but it was never anything that wasn’t necessary—when a teacher would require a drawing for a project, one percent would be the research and 99 percent for the art for it,” she explains. “I didn’t start to break into doing art as something that wasn’t required, or didn’t fill an immediate need, until recently.”
A celebrated local musician and graphic artist, Lacy is well known for her series of rock & roll show posters.
“It wasn’t really anything I intended to do—I booked a show, needed a flier, it had to be done —so I started making some cut and paste collages. It eventually grew to where I was making 24 stencils, screen printing and stenciling 100 fliers 24 times each, then overlaying them with glitter, glow-in-the-dark paint, and other non-reproducible things.”
What began with simple punk rock collage fliers grew into a massive portfolio of show posters. A few of the bands she has worked with include The Jack Palance Band, Queerwulf, Rowdy Downstairs, ADDC, Hidden Spots, Future Virgins, Dos Tornados, What If, False Sense Of Hope, Night Of The Wolf, The Binkly Brothers, and literally dozens upon dozens more.
Plus, she did some record artwork for Landlord, ADDC, Alligator, and Zippers To Nowhere.
“The one for The Bananas was one of my favorites, because it was a banana running from a violent mob of ice cream and whipped cream, who were trying to make a banana split,” she recalls.
Though she continues to create show posters whenever the need arises, Lacy has started to branch out. “I always hesitate to define art, because it comes with an acceptance of yourself, and not how other people see it. I classify it as something that isn’t utilitarian. I’ve just recently started doing art for art’s sake, which I guess is the definition of ‘fine’ art.”
She recently did a series of assemblage paintings. The vibrant, dynamic works were partially inspired by purchasing a house, and needing to get rid of thousands of pounds of lathe board during the remodel.
“You have the studs, then you have these small thin pieces of wood board, then you have the plaster,” she says. “And it weighs a ton, and you have to pay to throw it away. So I started using some of the lathe boards, sanded them down, primed, and then painted them with vivid bright colors.”
After painting the boards, she adhered them to colored backgrounds, varying the distance between the slats to create color gradients. She used acrylics to paint intricate designs on the skulls of various animals, attached them to the backgrounds, and framed it all in with stained wood.The resulting body of work is figuratively and literally heavy, as she tells us.
“I ended up making a bunch of pieces that are huge and fragile—they’re difficult to move around. With the framing and wood work, they weigh between 10 and 40 lbs.”
Though her work is in transition from utilitarian to decorative, she is still inspired by real world needs.
“I wouldn’t have had the idea to use the wood lathe if I hadn’t been remodeling my house for the last several years—I learned a lot of basic carpentry that is essential to my current artwork. A lot of that skill set has been helpful, becoming comfortable with the wood and transforming it from one thing into another. Mixing my flier work with new skills has breathed new life into my art.”
Lacy is currently working on a series of watercolors and paper cut shadow boxes, and she will likely always be into skulls, wood, and fake flowers.
“Me and grandmas everywhere are crazy about fake flowers.”
You can view her paintings at The Spot on 1800 E. Main St and at feralgrandmotherartistry.com