Bayou Artist | Alexis McCoy

Article by Starla Gatson
Photography by Kelly Moore Clark

From tiny works of nail art to colorful patchwork creations, Alexis McCoy follows her curiosity wherever it leads. Along the way, she’s finding her place in North Louisiana’s art community and having plenty of fun doing it.

Alexis McCoy is just having fun. But that goes without saying for those who have seen her work. The vibrant colors, funky patterns, and 3D textures that have become characteristic of her art are a dead giveaway that McCoy’s creations are born of joy.

If you’ve ever visited The Good Daze, a vintage and locally-made goods shop on Desiard Street, chances are you’ve seen at least one thing McCoy has created. Shop owner Hartley Waldrop Arendsen added McCoy to the ever-growing list of store vendors earlier this year, hoping the Ouachita Parish native would design and paint press-on nails to sell.

“Hartley asked me to do [press-ons] for The Good Daze in February,” McCoy says. “Another girl had been selling them there, but she had to stop because she got too busy.” 

That McCoy was called upon to bring her talents to The Good Daze isn’t surprising. She’s been a licensed nail technician for the last five years, having started working out of a spa before moving into a private salon suite. McCoy maintains a full client load and spends her days painting tiny yet intricate works of art onto her clients’ fingertips. Doing the same on press-on nails, she reasoned, wouldn’t be much different. 

“The press-ons are easier to do than an actual person’s hand because they don’t move,” McCoy says with a laugh. “It’s nice to be able to pick what I want to do. I know what’s trendy, so I know what will sell. So, sometimes, I just do trendy things. But a lot of the time, I make sets that are a little more detailed than what a client has time to sit down for.” 

When it’s time for McCoy to design and paint a new set, she often draws inspiration from pop culture, depicting well-known symbols or characters from TV shows and movies. For a Gilmore Girls-inspired set, for instance, McCoy painted images of coffee beans, the Luke’s Diner and Dragonfly Inn logos, all items that fans of the show would easily recognize. The seasons also play a role in the designs McCoy dreams up. During the weeks leading up to Halloween, the artist unveiled a set featuring ghosts, pumpkins, and 3D depictions of the nostalgic Pillsbury Halloween sugar cookies. Between pop culture references, holidays and special events, her collection of nail gems and doodads, and her Pinterest boards, McCoy’s never truly at a loss for inspiration. 

Between seeing clients from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. most days and coming home to work on press-ons, McCoy spends much of her time surrounded by gel nail polish with a tiny brush in hand. When asked if she ever dreads the work, her answer is immediate: no. 

“It definitely has its moments where it gets to be a little much,” she clarifies. “But when I get home, I kind of don’t stop. I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything if I’m just laying around. So, when I get home, I take care of my animals and make sure they’re fed, I cook dinner, and, as I’m winding down, I’m in my room crafting.” 

Besides, if McCoy ever finds herself in one of those moments where she isn’t inspired to create nail art, she’s got plenty of other creative outlets to turn to. While it wouldn’t be totally accurate to label McCoy a jack of all trades, it would be fair to say she’s a jack of many trades. She isn’t just a gifted nail artist; she’s also a painter, jewelry maker, and, most recently, a sewist. 

McCoy has become known for her patchwork T-shirts and sweatshirts, most of which she makes from secondhand fabrics, as she sources those from Kelsey Mardis of Carry On Reuse and pre-loved garments. McCoy didn’t plan for this to happen, she says. Instead, after seeing pins of patchwork clothing while scrolling Pinterest, McCoy had a thought that many of her fellow artists have undoubtedly had: I can do that myself. 

“I started sewing sweatshirts,” she says. “It was all secondhand, so it was cheap to start doing. Then, I was like, ‘Wait, this is fun!’ I sat down and sewed all of my old sweatshirts I didn’t wear by hand, and eventually, I bought a sewing machine.” 

Not long after discovering she enjoyed and had a knack for breathing new life into old clothing through unique patchwork designs featuring words and phrases, fruits, flowers, and more, McCoy dove deeper into the world of sewing and began making other items. Soon, flags, banners, vintage-inspired bag charms, jar grippers, and tote bags were added to the Art by Alexis lineup at The Good Daze and at the multi-hyphenate artist’s booth at makers markets. 

“I really think I just got inspired by all the people who sell at The Good Daze,” McCoy says of her decision to explore art through multiple mediums. “It’s such an inspiring place, and there are so many creative people there.” 

She encourages anyone else feeling inspired by the art they consume to do as she has and let that inspiration lead to action. 

“Just pick it up and go with it,” she says. “You’ve got to start somewhere. Your first couple of items might not be good, but that’s okay. It’s all been super fun for me, so I would [tell others] to try to have fun with it.”

McCoy has taken her own advice, and it’s paying off for her. That she gets to make money from doing the thing that fills her cup — making art of all kinds — is something she says she doesn’t take lightly, declaring, “It really has been [a blessing]. I didn’t expect my twenties to be like this at all.”

When she was younger, McCoy envisioned herself spending her life in a classroom as an art teacher. She had always been creative, she says, and was enrolled in art classes from elementary through high school. 

“When I was a kid, I tried out for choir, and they told me no,” McCoy says, laughing, “So, I started art classes instead, and I’ve been doing it ever since. When I got out of school, I thought I wanted to be an art teacher.”

However, McCoy’s plans shifted when she, like many others, was forced to trade the traditional college experience for Zoom lectures and Canvas discussion boards during the Covid pandemic. McCoy didn’t gel with being an online student, so she withdrew from her university and began her schooling to become a nail technician. Nail art had long been a passion of hers, she says, recalling, “I remember watching YouTube tutorials as a child, at probably 10 years old, and just painting my nails at home. I always had some funky little thing on my nails, and I would redo them probably every other day. It was always important to me to have my nails done. That was something that my grandmother instilled in me: You gotta look put together.” 

McCoy was content being a nail technician and taking a few painting commissions here and there. But, as she began taking her own advice, just do it, and let it be fun, more doors opened for her to share her artistic talents. The opportunities she’s had to be a part of the North Louisiana art scene have been a gift, she says, and right now, her only plan is to continue embracing them. She hopes to attend more markets and is even contemplating teaching a few patchwork sewing classes. Regardless of what it looks like, McCoy is excited about staying plugged into the local art scene.

“We do have a very big art community here,” she says. “I haven’t met a person who has not been supportive.”