We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Heather Luttrell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Heather below.

Alright, Heather thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’ve been so so so lucky and honored to spend most of my musical career playing in a band with my Father, Ralph Luttrell. He is also a Luthier at his guitar shop in Roswell and makes resonator guitars. There’s nothing like the joy and connection that comes with it… how our voices blend in tone and how our “musical feeling” meshes on stage. I am a very lucky little possumdiva to have had him at my side opening for such acts as Lynyrd Skynyrd and John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett and Brandi Carlile. My Uncle, my husband and my best friend (who is my main fellow songwriter for the band) also play with us now and it’s such an amazing feeling making music with them all these years!

My other project that I am very very excited/invested in is I am painting/writing a graphic novel/comic book kinda thing that is a sort of artistically rendered treatise on my journey with creative depression, etc. It’s called Depression with Rabbits. It is based on a dream sequence and narrated with my own voice as I move through alot of the valleys and gulches of depression. I am about halfway through the first series, soon to be followed by 3 more series of paintings, eventually being published/self published hopefully by the end of the year.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born in Atlanta GA, to two beautiful hippie parents. My mother was an ER nurse and my father a musician. I was raised in my dads bluegrass band called Possumtrot so I have always had an affinity for music, eventually playing in a band, as a fulltime musician with my father and my Uncle, Paul Newkirk, who was the bass player and one of the founding members of Possumtrot. I have always loved making art, primarily painting and drawing. I started getting into acrylics on canvas, playing with color etc. Soon I was having my own art shows in my early 20s around Atlanta, selling pretty well for someone who is completely self-taught. The pandemic offered me an opportunity to finally dive back into illustration which has always been a passion of mine. I started using more watercolors and mixing artistic media. I love selling prints of my work and have a few shows since it all started opening back up. One of my main themes now is nature, animals, whimsical things. I love making things specifically for people. Something tailored to them. I believe the natural world to be the thing in most need of showcasing and protecting and I love doing anything I can to instill wonder in nature with my art.
I am never seen without a book, something I get alot of shit about from my friends, but refuse to give up. I am in the process of sketching out and writing several childrens book ideas, and between those, my fantasy/sci-fi novel series to teach you how to read the tarot through the stories, and the actual tarot card deck I am working on, I hope to produce something inspiring and protective of the magical world of nature.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I am a heavy and vivid dreamer… even if they are just daydreams, momentary flashes through my brain. I love being able to translate any mental image into a physical piece of art. I love taking ideas that float around on a porch in the hot Georgia evenings, after a few glasses of whiskey, and making them into a reality. Whether with paint, clay or song. It is also the most frustrating part of my life, to get it exactly how I see it/want it to come out. The challenge is sometimes my favorite part.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I get bored very easily, While I loved being a musician/artist full time, touring was EXHAUSTING. My body was falling apart, I missed my pets, my family and my bed. After touring for 15yrs straight, my back finally gave out, and I was rendered unable to walk, due to 5 herniated discs in my lower back, for 3 months. It was financially and physically devastating. I had no health insurance. But I did have amazing fans and friends that supported me while I healed (and learned to play the banjo from the confines of my bed. After that I decided I needed some time to try something a little different for a bit, In an effort to further my own physical healing I went to yoga school which led me back to my degree in neuromuscular therapy. I worked at two different places while building my practice at home, and now I work only from home, only for myself, with a practice that is normally booked out over two months in advance. There is so much creativity to be found in the healing arts as well. I get to work on painting and sketching in between clients and I don’t think I have ever been happier. It was confusing however to move into a space where I felt that if I wasn’t driving full-force at music 24-7, that I was failing somehow. It was so relieving to come to a place where I understand my creativity, all of it’s aspects and how they all, literally and spiritually, feed me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.heatherluttrell.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_possumdiva/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatherLuttrellMusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePossumdiva
• Other: This maybe the one I want to highlight the most, as it is our art and music club where we release a new song every month as well as mail out art and other handmade items to our patrons! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Possumdiva

Image Credits
First photo of me in the chair with the guitar was taken by Nate Dorn of Dorn Brothers Photgraphy I took all the rest