Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Smith.
Hi Heather, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As far as I can remember, I have always had a keen interest in the arts. I vividly remember being in preschool and being allowed to skip nap time to keep painting because I loved it so much. I often get asked if I’ve been living under a rock because of the numerous pop culture references I fail to understand from skipping out on watching tv shows and movies to do something creative instead. It wasn’t until my high school years when I attended a magnet school for the arts that I realized you could seriously have a career being creative. My teacher at the time, Kevin Cole, instilled this belief in me and started talking to me about the possibility of art and design colleges for my future. Ultimately I ended up at Savannah College of Art and Design and began pursuing a fine arts degree.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The journey has not always been easy. I always felt an incredible pressure to earn money as an artist. I would hear comments from family members about how expensive my schooling was and how I would probably “just” become a teacher at the end of it all. I ended up dropping out of school and moving to Chicago to try to work as a graphic designer. The work situation I found myself in was a miserable one. My skillset was being taken advantage of for very little pay. Through this job however, I became good friends with a makeup artist named Rachel Reiman. She was involved with a video promo being produced at my job, and she so kindly took me under her wing. She trained me in makeup artistry and started booking me for gigs, which ultimately changed my life. Rachel encouraged me to go to hair school so that I could start styling hair as well. Meanwhile, she connected me with a high-end salon that I was able to assist at while attending the Aveda Institute. I never would have guessed in my wildest dreams that I would end up working as a hairstylist and makeup artist, but thanks to Rachel, I did. This type of career checked so many boxes for me. It allowed me to make money anywhere, be creative and gave me the ability to travel. At the time, this seemed like the dream!
I eventually left Chicago for Nashville to be closer to friends and family. The market in Nashville was not the same as Chicago though, and I found myself struggling to earn a living as a stylist. During my job search, I started getting back into making art. I needed furniture for my new place, so I began building it myself. I photographed the pieces for my portfolio and shared it on Instagram, and that’s when my life changed again. I began getting requests from random followers to build furniture for them, so I quit looking for a job and started my own small business as a woodworker. I shipped pieces all across the United States and started growing faster than I was prepared for. My relationship with my grandfather became very close during this time. He was a furniture maker as well, so we bonded creatively and had so much fun working out design ideas together. Aesthetically we had very different styles, but it was the highlight of my life experiencing creative collaboration with a partner you can trust, and being able to have an influence on each other’s design approaches.
At the height of this time, a boutique hotel in Miami contacted me to build all of the furniture for their rooms. I felt like I had achieved this dream I never knew existed. I was finally earning a living making art that I wanted to make, and I was busy. The week that I was negotiating the deal with the hotel and trying to figure out how to expand my business to that scale, everything started to come to a head. I came down with the flu and became very ill. Shortly after that, my grandfather died suddenly and unexpectedly, and I let the hotel deal fall apart. I tried making furniture pieces after that, but everything felt so uninspired. I realized that for me, the joy that came from woodworking was being able to share ideas with someone that was equally as excited about the craft as I was, and that was gone. It took me years to realize I couldn’t make art anymore because creating was tied to my grief. I didn’t want to make something I was proud of and not be able to share it with the other person who cared just as much as me.
I found myself coping with this loss by working as a hairstylist once again. I don’t think there is a one size fits all for grief. For me, it’s a void that will never go away, but I’m slowly figuring out the steps to work through it in my own time. For the last several years, there has been a constant nagging in my head for me to get back to pursuing what I’m passionate about: art. During lockdown in 2020, Kevin Cole reached out to me through Instagram and asked if I was still making things. I felt disappointed in myself for telling him “no”. This irked me for the next two years to the point that I reapplied to SCAD to finish my BFA and be forced to create again and overcome that grief. The field trip for my first class back at SCAD was actually to go see Kevin Cole’s exhibit at the MOCA. That felt like confirmation that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, and without Mr. Cole even realizing it, he had been gently nudging me to get back on track after all of these years.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Right now I am on a path of self-discovery. I run a small salon called Blondie ATL that specializes in hair color and hair lightening services and still work as a hair stylist, but I am simultaneously finishing my BFA in sculpture at SCAD. My fondness still remains for woodworking and furniture design. For the time being, I’m focused on installation art and experimenting with cement and all of the ways you can manipulate that particular medium. My current works in progress in cement range from a massive dining table to a woven concrete wall installation.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I don’t consider myself a risk taker, but I think everyone else might disagree. I’m not afraid to try new things or be uncomfortable with a new challenge. I’m a big fan of radical change to shake things up – move to a new city, quit a job, go back to school, go travel, etc. Maybe that does make me a risk taker after all? I have always felt a sense of urgency with my life because tomorrow is never promised. There’s nothing sadder to me than someone being complacent or miserable in their life when all they have to do is be open to possibility and make the decision to say yes to something new. If you had asked my younger self if I would have thought I’d be where I am today, I would have laughed at you. Even through all the strife and hard times, I wouldn’t have it any other way because the journey has been the ultimate adventure, and I’ve met the most amazing people and learned so much. At the end of the day, everyone’s life is a work of art. So overcome your challenges, face those nagging feelings, try something new, be open to the journey, and see what you make of yourself. You won’t regret it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.blondieatl.com
- Instagram: @heather.smith
- Other: @blondie_atl
