We were lucky to catch up with Lacy Hale recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lacy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

In 2017 a group of white supremacists had advertised that they were coming to a town near my home. Their intent was to recruit for their ranks. I am a painter and printmaker so in protest and response to this event I created a block print of a simple mountain background with the text “No Hate in My Holler” standing large in the foreground. A ‘holler’ or hollow is usually a creek or watercourse that flows between the mountains that historically people in the mountains have lived beside. The road usually runs by the creek as well. So hollers run up and down every mountain in the Appalachians.

So, I carved the block and I made an print and posted it on my social media. People in the community went wild for it, sharing it on their social media and asking for it on tees, stickers, and prints of it. They also asked for flags to hang on their houses. I print my own shirts so I made a screen and started taking orders. It really took off. I decided then that I could do some good with this piece. Since 2017, I have donated at least a quarter of the profits from the sale of every piece of No Hate in My Holler merchandise that I sell. I have raised over $7,000 to date. I have received messages of thanks for creating this piece from people of all walks of life. Communities as far as two hours away have asked if they can use the image on billboards to proclaim equality in their areas.

I do a lot of work with communities creating public art pieces but this piece is probably the most meaningful piece of work that I’ve done. I also feel like this piece of artwork can be viewed as proof that art can make a difference in some small way.

Lacy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I had the pleasure and pure luck of being born and raised in the Appalachian mountains of southeastern Kentucky. From day one I remember art and music being a part of everyday life— both of my parents were creative, as were my aunts who lived nearby. My cousins and I were always running through the hills and ‘hollers’ playing games, making potions and sculptures out of flowers, sticks, and creek clay, going on plant walks with my mom, working the garden with my dad, making art and listening to our grandpa play the banjo or dulcimer or hearing ghost stories from a relative. To be creative was a way of life. Of course, being poor in the mountains of southeastern Kentucky, you kind of had to be. Often if you wanted something, you either had to make it or had to make it happen.

From the time I was five I knew I wanted to be an artist. Being surrounded by art and music all the time, it just seemed natural.
Out of high school I was accepted into Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, NY. It was too expensive for my parents to send me but they never once discouraged me from going. So, my community rallied around me and raised money for me to attend the first year. This initial act of kindness paired with the roots of where I grew up would mold my approach to my art practice for the rest of my life.

Out of art school I always did art part time but I began my full time professional artistic career in 2017 when I created the No Hate in My Holler design and felt a good deal of momentum building behind myself and my work. I am mainly a painter and printmaker, focusing much of my time on community-informed public murals, creating work rooted in place, and giving back to the region that means so much to me.

My day to day work mainly consists of hand printing my T-shirt and greeting card designs, fulfilling my Etsy and website orders, creating mural designs, working on easel paintings, etc. I’m currently working on a series of portraits for a book through the organization Voice of Witness about people resettling in Appalachia and this week I am the artist in residence at the Art Center of the Bluegrass in Danville, KY teaching middle school age students the techniques and importance of printmaking in social justice movements. As you can see, to be a full time artist in southeastern Kentucky, I do a little bit of everything.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

On July 28 of 2022 a disastrous flood hit eastern Kentucky, wiping out homes and businesses. Even though our home was safe, my husband and I were both small business owners and his record store and my printmaking studio were both destroyed. First there was the fear of having no power, no water, cell towers were down, roads were impassable— there was no way for me to contact my mom to see if she was okay. Then once I could finally make it into town to get to a phone and call my mom and realized she was alright, I saw the record store with my studio in the back. 230 cards that I had hand printed, packaged, worked on for a week and was preparing to ship the next day for an author’s book release were completely drowned and strewn throughout the store. All of this hard work along with records, tee shirts, my prints, other products, merchandise, and equipment. Instead of sitting down and crying, which is what I felt like doing, we jumped in and started cleaning. The health department states that after a flood you have 48 hours to dry a space before mold starts to set in. The first morning after the flood friends and strangers were coming in off the street to help us toss out waterlogged equipment and tear up mud drenched carpet. It was incredible. We got everything out of that space that was under the water line within the 48 hours. Without the community’s help, there would have been no way we could have gotten it all done.

My husband and I were out of work for three months trying to salvage what we could, find a space to set up what was left, and start over. My sister-in-law set up a gofundme and that helped immensely. There was a point in time that I wasn’t sure if I could ever do artwork again. There was so much debris everywhere, so many people had lost so much. I couldn’t find the energy to even pick up a pencil. And then finally the feeling came back to me. Art is what drives me and heals me. Now I have a new studio, there is a new record store space, and we feel like this new spot is a good move for us.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

In all the tragedy of the flood there was so much love and kindness shared. Vincent Van Gogh said that he made “consolatory art for the broken heart.” I think that’s so beautiful. I have to say that one of my goals for my work is to create pieces that uplift others. Much of my work focuses on the people in southeastern Kentucky and the central Appalachian region. I want to make work that beautifies communities, creates a sense of pride, and defies stereotypes of the region. With the No Hate in My Holler work I want to use my privilege and gift of art-making to highlight those who are oppressed and raise money for non profits doing the work on a broader scale.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.lacyhale.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/artbylacyhale?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artbylacyhale/

Image Credits
Lacy Hale