EMILY WHANG/ NEXTGENRADIO
What is the meaning of
home?
Dierre Hartman speaks with Monica Hill, a visual artist about how she found her passion and purpose with the arts. Hill says when she’s creating, she experiences a sense of home (peace, happiness and ease) that’s unrestricted by boundaries or limits. Hill creates multimedia artwork and engages with the city of Jackson in the same spirit because she believes creation, connection and community are essential to her becoming a masterpiece.
Finding home in creating, connecting and building community
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Have you ever seen that movie Soul? The Pixar movie Soul.
Every time he played the piano, it was just like he went into another world. I feel like when I create, that’s me, like, (inhale) time stops almost. Um, it’s kind of like — cause I think a lot. I just asked somebody yesterday, like, you know, sometimes you don’t hear thoughts in your head? Like, I always hear thoughts. But when I’m creating, it’s not like that, for me. It’s just like a comfortable place, like I can be myself.
My name is Monica Hill, I am a visual artist. I’m from South Jackson.
I work with different mediums. I paint, mixed media paintings, um, textile. I crochet. I tuft. I love exaggerating things. I don’t like, like I want stuff to come off of the canvas. I want — it’s like you don’t have to fit in a box. I don’t like, in life, being in a box.
So um, when I think of home, I think of creation. Because I can be myself, like it’s no limit. It’s no, I’m not in a box. I can literally do what I want. I said once before, but I’m from South Jackson. And, uh, I was a fairly quiet child, and so I felt like I just wasn’t good with words and expressing myself. Um, and so I guess drawing or creating was like my outlet, because growing up, like, in South Jackson wasn’t the easiest. It just has a bad reputation I feel sometimes, especially with me growing up like for crime and you know, just, (sigh) just being able to express that a different way other than, like some of my peers were like rebel, rebelling, and, you know, just being mischievous. Um, I just decided to, to create instead.
I thought back to like times when I was a child and things that would just make me happy. So if it’s something like as simple as flying a kite or like the little zebra gum you get from the store with the tattoos of the paper and putting those out, like just anything, um, that gives me a sense of peace and happiness and ease.
Tattoos is one of my things. Like, I’m really just getting started. Um, it’s just a great permanent art form for me. And I like it. I like putting my work, sometimes maybe other people’s work, on my body.
Even when I was younger, um, people like with a lot of tattoos, I would hear sometimes my family members say that they look scary or they look this way or that way. And I’m like, that look cool to me. Um, so a lot of my tattoos I drew myself.
If someone was to ask me who am I, (giggle) I would say, first and foremost, I feel like I’m a vessel. Um, once I figured out my purpose, which is creation, connection, and community, I knew that that would be part of fulfilling my mission.
I also host rug workshops around the city to bring, um, creation to the community. I’ve had, um, people that have come in and they’ll be like, you know, I was just so sad, I really needed this. And that’s what I do it for. You know sometimes people don’t know they need that. Sometimes people don’t know that they can just create sometimes and, you know, ease their mind a little bit. And I feel like everybody is, is an artist in their own way. And so sometimes we just need people to bring that out of us.
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Monica Hill’s love for body art first began when she was a young girl buying Fruit Stripe Juicy Bubble Gum, which she called “zebra gum.”
“I didn’t even like the gum,” Hill, a visual artist, says while giggling. “It was just so nasty. But I used to get a little tattoo paper, and I would just put them all on my neck, on my face.”
She now has tattoos permanently adorned on her chest, neck, hands and fingers.
“I would hear, sometimes, my family say they look scary,” Hill says. “And I’m like, they look cool to me … a lot of my tattoos I drew myself … Tattoos are one of my things. Like, I’m just getting started.”
Hill is a passionate visual artist with a knack for self-expression seeing no boundaries. She describes herself as a vessel and says her purpose is creation, connection and community.
“When I think of home, I think of creation,” Hill said. “Because I can be myself … I’m not in a box. I can literally do what I want.”
Visual artist Monica Hill laughs while cradling colorful yarn. Hill loves using texture in her work because she likes the way it feels on her hand. She says adding it also emphasizes emotions in her pieces.
DIERRE HARTMAN/NEXTGENRADIO
As a visual artist, she finds joy in working with textiles, and her style is full of exaggerated expressions. Hill says sometimes you’ll see one eye is bigger than the other and nothing is symmetrical. Extending objects beyond the boundaries of the canvas is another signature style of hers.
“I like texture … you’ll notice that I use texture and paint to stack paint on top of each other … and with yarn, I just really like texture,” Hill says. “It started with me just crocheting beanies during COVID. When I first posted them, nobody wanted to buy them. But then I started giving them to homeless people … And I still see a guy to this day who still has that hat.”
Hill says people call her the “hat lady.”
“I make different kinds of hats. I like to keep people warm or keep people stylish. I feel like fashion is like a huge form of self-expression too.”
Visual artist Monica Hill created the mixed media piece “COMMUNICATION I” in 2021. The material is made from acrylic yarn, wool yarn and felt. It was inspired by the communication challenges she faced during a past romantic relationship. The wavelengths between the two mouths resemble static and ineffective communication.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MONICA HILL
Hill attributes two sources for fueling her passion for the arts: the rich culture of South Jackson and her family. Her mother in particular could draw and most of her family is musically inclined.
“… Some of them [my family] can sing very well. And everybody is so diverse in the genres … while I was young, I felt like I could listen to these different songs and see pictures in my head that I wanted to draw.”
Additionally, Hill says growing up in South Jackson had many challenges. She witnessed many of her peers engaging in rebellious and mischievous behaviors.
“Knowing a lot of their stories and just going through similar experiences, I was able to turn that [emotions] into something visually,” Hill says. So she creates instead.
Visual artist Monica Hill uses acrylic to paint gold teeth onto a table surface in her art studio in Jackson, Mississippi, on Monday, May 6th, 2024. “A lot of my work comes from personal experiences, love, loss and grief,” Hill says.
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When I think of home, I think of creation. I can be myself … I’m not in a box. I can literally do what I want.
“Self Portrait” was created by Monica Hill in 2021. Hill says she loves focusing on the anatomy and exaggerations in her art. “You’ll notice sometimes one eye is bigger than the other, or, you know, [that] nothing is symmetrical. I don’t think I see people as symmetrical when I look at them.”
COURTESY OF MONICA HILL
Hill describes herself as a quiet child who used drawing and art as an outlet. She continues to struggle with verbal expression. However, while she might be quiet with words, her hands speak volumes. One of her works, titled Communication, was inspired by a past romantic relationship. (On a positive note, someone has since bought the piece.)
In addition to tufting, painting, crocheting and hosting rug workshops for the community, Hill is a manager at the Municipal Art Gallery. She says she finds joy in working with other artists.
She feels like what artists need is “room and space to create and be themselves and showcase their work.”
“I don’t want to say I give people a voice because they had a voice before they met me,” Hill says, “but [I] amplify what they’re doing and that’s a beautiful thing.”
And who would have thought that it started with a pack of “nasty” gum?
“Communication II,” which highlights exaggerated lips, and “Bloom In Adversity,” which is inspired by cubism, were Monica Hill’s two works of art displayed in the Mississippi Museum of Art. The material in this artwork is plywood, acrylic yarn, wool yarn, and felt.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MONICA HILL
Once I figured out my purpose, which is creation, connection, and community, I knew that that would be part of fulfilling my mission.