Bayou Artist | Heather Gill

ARTICLE BY STARLA GATSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK

Heather Gill is all about authenticity. She doesn’t mind standing out for the sake of staying true to herself, a fact confirmed by her appearance. When she sits down with BayouLife, she’s sporting a turquoise braided mohawk, nose and septum piercings, and a smattering of tattoos, including the words “Free Hugs” spelled out across her fingers.

“WITH THE TATTOOS AND THE HAIR OR whatever, maybe people think I’m intimidating or unapproachable, but I never want to be that,” Gill says. 

She wants to be approached. The lifelong Ouachita parish resident says meeting people, especially her industry peers, is the most fun part of being a professional artist. She adds, “The connections, the inspiration, and the conversations about art have been very fulfilling for me.” 

Despite being creative since childhood, Gill didn’t initially plan to pursue a career as an artist. Instead, upon graduating from Downsville High School, Gill went into the world of banking. 

“I spent 20 years in banking,” she explains. “I was good at it, but it wasn’t my passion. It wasn’t what I knew I needed to be doing. In 2012, I quit working at the bank and decided to go back to school and get an art degree. I’ve just been having a really good time ever since.”

Gill can pinpoint the exact moment she knew she was meant to shift her focus from finance to making art. She was in Africa on a mission trip, sitting on a corner drinking a Coca-Cola and chatting with two friends she’d traveled with. Somehow, the conversation shifted to artists. 

“I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not an artist. I’m creative, but I’m not an artist,’” Gill recalls. “They’re like, ‘Yes, you are an artist, and you need to accept it.’ It was like the clouds parted, and the universe said, ‘OK, you gotta do this for real.’”

When the decision to change courses was made, Gill still had one other choice to make: where she would study. She weighed the University of Louisiana Monroe and Louisiana Delta, reasoning that while ULM would be the best place for her to get an art degree, Delta could teach her how to weld, a skill she could use for sculptural purposes. Ultimately, she ended up enrolling at ULM, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a ceramics concentration. 

“I did learn to weld a little bit,” she notes before adding with a laugh, “I know just enough to be dangerous.” 

Gill uses her welding skills to create sculptures, but that isn’t the only tool with which she makes art, and sculpting isn’t the only medium she works in. Like many other artists, Gill does a little bit of everything. 

“I like to mix different genres, like woodworking and collage,” she explains. “Taking two completely unrelated things and melding them together is a fun part of the process for me, asking, ‘How would this material work if I did this?’” 

Some of the pieces she has on display at Courtyard on Cotton — she’s a member of the gallery’s Artist Collective — are prime examples of the genre mixing Gill enjoys so much. One of these, she explains, is a ceramic doll whose limbs are attached to a torso made from fake fruit purchased from Hobby Lobby. 

“I like weird stuff,” she says with a shrug after explaining the doll. 

Gill knows that, though she likes unusual artwork, others might not be fans of the pieces she puts out into the world. She notes that some have mentioned being afraid of the dolls, but she doesn’t take offense. 

“I get that,” she says of those frightened by the fruit-bodied doll and its atypically-torsoed counterparts she made. “It’s not my intention to make people uncomfortable. It’s not my intention to creep people out. But if I can make them think, if I can make them look at something and think, ‘I never thought of it like that,’ [maybe I’m] helping people be more open-minded.”

Ultimately, that — inviting viewers to think outside the box and accept something more unconventional than they’re accustomed to — is Gill’s goal as an artist. This means committing herself to making the art she wants to make, not just the pieces she thinks will sell. That’s not easy, she says. 

“Sometimes, I struggle with, ‘OK, do I want to make the art that I want to make? Or do I want to make the art I know will sell?’,” she shares. “The past year has probably been me just trying to make the art that’s in my head, whether I think it’ll sell or not. That’s been a fun experiment.”

While the experiment itself has been fun, Gill shares that the catalyst for it was anything but. Her father’s recent death and the grief she’s experienced since are part of what has motivated her to consider herself over the potential buyer in the creation process. 

“I realized I’ve been too much of a people pleaser all my life,” Gill says when asked what her grief and anger have taught her. “So, I’m trying to learn how to be myself, how to be more authentic, and start making the stuff I want to make.”

The stuff Gill wants to make includes a piece featured in the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council’s “Roots and Reflecting” show from July 29th through September 5th. The piece, called “I Wish I Had the Balls to Stand Up for Myself When I Was Younger, But I’m Making Up For It Now,” is a giant sphere made of fabric. 

“That piece, if someone wants to buy it, that’s okay, but I made it because it was a challenge,” Gill explains. “[I thought], ‘Could I make a giant fabric ball?’ And I did, and it was fun.”

She goes on to give another example of a “just-for-her” piece she finished recently, a pair of shoes covered in eggshells called, “I Don’t Think I’ll Be Needing These Anymore,” which speaks to her prior people-pleasing tendencies. 

“Maybe somebody will buy it, maybe not,” she says. “I don’t know, but I made it, and [doing so] was empowering.” 

While she also draws inspiration from things like world events, Gill says trying to be her most authentic self is currently her biggest motivator to create. 

“As humans, and maybe more so as artists, we are our own worst critics,” she says. “I talk to myself like I would never talk to other people. I have an amazing support group. If I’m half as awesome as all these people around me say I am, why am I not loving myself more? So, I’m just trying to love and appreciate myself.” 

If her art manages to inspire others to do the same, then, that’s even better, Gill goes on. 

“If I make money in art, that’s great,” she declares. “But I want my art to make people think and have a revelation of how much they are worth. Making the world a better place seems all grand and wonderful, but you do that one person at a time.”

Or, in Gill’s case, one art viewer at a time. 

North Louisiana art patrons have several chances to look at, be inspired by, and even purchase Gill’s art. As a Courtyard on Cotton Artist Collective member, her works are featured in the downtown West Monroe gallery, and in November, she’ll have her first solo show in Ruston. She’s also active on Instagram, @missnebulajones, where she posts one creative act a day in an attempt to make creativity a habit and motivate others to do the same.