Today we’d like to introduce you to Haleigh Roy.
Haleigh, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I grew up outside Boston in a small town called Tewksbury – famous for the Market Basket strike- the only exciting thing to happen there in 30 years. For high school, I went to a technical school where I spent every other week in DVC (design and visual communication arts). In that vocation, there was a strong divide between who was going to continue their art past high school and those that weren’t. When you’re in high school, and you’re just doing pretty straight forward assignments and everyone is obsessed with Banksy, it’s hard to imagine that you will be making your own work or be anything other than just a cog in the machine. Once I moved on to MassArt I was really thankful that I had gone to a tech school, I was realizing more and more that all of my experiences there were things I could translate from there to my own personal work.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
The biggest thing I try and do with my art is mix the traditional techniques with the modern world to create something that blends the two in an unexpected way. I’ve been doing a lot of graffiti and cartooning to bring together the two worlds. I think a lot of artists don’t always take the liberties offered to us living where the classics are at our fingertips right along with the more modern. We have to take enjoyment from things that are unlikely, I try and bring that into my drawings for sure.
I try not to see art as something that has to have a message, because in the grand scheme of things it’s not. It’s mostly entertainment. That being said, someone has to do it. Someone designs the shirts we wear every day and the packaging we see. The whole point is that you can make it exclusive, while at the same time making it inclusive by its nature. People buy Warhol paintings not necessarily to feel something but just because they want to be in the exclusive club of people who own a Warhol painting. On the same level, people might buy Shiele paintings to feel something, to be a part of the people banded together by the feeling an artist is trying to convey. It’s a complicated geography to navigate but at its core it is entertainment. Though I do hope that art brings enjoyment, it’s like an accessory, it isn’t something that is necessary but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. I don’t think my art is any more interesting than anyone else’s art, but I do think my mixture of traditional and so-called rebellious techniques sparks interest in people.
Any advice for aspiring or new artists?
My advice for other artists would be to keep creating. Keep finding your own interests and integrate them into your personal work and studio work. Make merely for yourself-but not just for the sake of making. Make your work your entire livelihood and continue to find the reason why you started in the first place. I wish I had learned earlier that you don’t need to produce work just so your professor will like it. You’re paying tuition to make things you want to make, not everything you’re told to. Also, to keep those around you that share a similar drive and work ethic. Those who do not will only bog you down.
Contact Info:
- Email: hcroy@massart.edu
- Other: https://www.behance.net/hcroy353c
Image Credit:
Personal Photo: Marcelina Roszkowski
