We recently connected with Jessica McGhee and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

In June of 2021 I was selected by the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria to create a colorful art installation made out of garbage, to be shown in 2022. Two months after signing the contract and starting the planning process for this piece, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was uncertain if I would be able to honor my commitment to this piece, due to the surgeries, treatments and side effects. Thankfully, the art director held the spot for me, while giving me lots of space and time to decide if I was capable of completing the piece. I usually work with really bright colors, but all of that color started to feel like more noise, when the neverending doctors visits and hospitals already felt like the world was screaming at me constantly. I started focusing on softness. Every doctors visit left me with some remnant meant for the trash – wristbands, radiation stickers, so much paperwork. I saved it all and started building a whale. I love whales. And I guess I wanted to turn this terrible thing into something I loved. And when it cane time to put my big cancer whale into an environment, I remembered forts created under willow trees as a child. And how safe they felt. So I wove fishing line pulled from the river into white grocery bags filled with trash plastics, made jellyfish out of to go containers, chains of soft white water bottle lids, and I built myself a willow tree. I found two chairs in a thrift store and built a bench that felt like part of the tree. A place to rest. I built the entire exhibit out of garbage and I built it while going through cancer treatment. It was the very best form of therapy that I could have asked for. And when it finally went on display, so many others took the opportunity to sit in my willow tree fort and to rest, which meant the world to me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a trash artist from the midwestern United States. I’m better known as @loveheylola across social media. I create jewelry and sculptures out of trash that I collect during clean-ups, and trash plastics that people donate to me to recycle. My business is built upon the idea of lowering my footprint as an artist, and I do that by supporting conservation organizations (Mangrove Action Project and Ocean Conservancy), engaging in regular clean-ups, using found plastics in my work, and using my platform to share what I know and learn.

Hey Lola has been in existence in some form or another for over 20 years. I started off selling original paintings (as well as general merchandise) in a boutique that I owned. A friend taught me how to wire wrap stone jewelry around that time, and I began selling my own jewelry. Eventually I began incorporating broken, discarded, and thrifted jewelry into my pieces. My work back then was even featured in the LATimes for being an eco-friendly choice. In 2017, I was making jewelry, but I was also creating a lot of mural work. While working on a mural of a sea turtle, I decided that I wanted to see sea turtles in real life. I went to Costa Rica for a three week sea turtle conservation trip, where I worked with the local government to patrol for poachers, tag sea turtles, measure nest depth, count eggs, etc. I was there during an even called “arribada,” which is a mass nesting event – hundreds of thousands of turtles nesting at the same time. It was magical. My own arrival in Costa Rica also coincided with sea turtles being born from the last arribada – so many baby sea turtles coming out of their nests at once and running for the sea! To see that not only did they have to avoid stray dogs, vultures, and organic debris on their journey, but also actual garbage, was heartbreaking. The artist in me was drawn to the bright colors of all of the plastics, but my soul was devastated seeing all of the amazing wildlife that had to struggle to survive alongside what we’ve created and just left everywhere. I started gathering groupings of plastics and photographing them. I took a bunch home, not knowing what I would do with them. Without really thinking about it, I started making sculptures. I posted them online and people started asking me to show my work and share my story. And eventually I started playing with the plastics in jewelry and arrived at where I am today.

My primary goal is to use my work to educate about the environment. However, my relationship with nature is closely tied to my mental health – I truly believe that nature is healing, and that protecting our environment makes us not only physically healthier but mentally as well. I

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to learn that a zero waste lifestyle comes from a place of privilege that most people can’t afford. That banning single use plastics across the board can cause harm to people who need those items for their day to day life. I learned those lessons in a big way when I was diagnosed with Bells Palsy. Half of my face was paralyzed for 5 weeks. Most of my meals were liquid and everything had to go through a straw. I did have silicone straws, but I didn’t always remember to keep them with me. I very quickly went from “no single use plastics ever!” to “can I please have a straw?” It was a humbling and eye opening experience.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I always try to create things that have a story and are somewhat surprising. The ingredients to my work start as garbage, but when you see the end result, I want that fact to come as a surprise. My most popular earrings are delicate and ethereal looking soft white flowers on gold filled hoops – but they’re made out of water bottle caps that I find on clean-ups. Showing the process of picking up a piece of garbage off of the ground and how it then is transformed into something beautiful is what has grown my social media presence the most. But I also have a steady growth because I show up regularly. The last time I went viral on instagram I basically dared myself to start showing up online every day. I haven’t missed a day since, and that has resulted in a loyal and engaging customer base, which I’m so grateful for.      

Contact Info:

• Website: www.loveheylola.com
• Instagram: Loveheylola
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Loveheylola
• Tiktok: loveheylola

Image Credits
James McGhee