Today we’d like to introduce you to Iris Hughey.
Hi Iris, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Dallas, Texas, which is where I started to find my artistic voice, thanks to the inspiring creatives and makers around me. I have been interested in drawing and making art since I was very young. It has always been important to me to create, in whatever form makes sense at the time. The arts and music scene in Dallas is very prevalent, particularly in Oak Cliff, which is where I lived. I went to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (BTWHSPVA) for visual arts, and I took additional classes and camps at Oil and Cotton, an amazing maker-space where children, teens, and adults can go to take classes and workshops in all sorts of art mediums (and now music as well). I then came to Baltimore to attend school at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) from 2016-2020, and have remained in Baltimore ever since. I have been fortunate enough to find work in the art field since graduating, such as at the Baltimore Museum of Art, a furniture making shop, and now for an art handling company in Glen Burnie. I joined a ceramics studio space in 2023 that is shared with some incredibly talented ceramicists and sculptors. This space is owned and run by Whitney Simpkins, also known as Personal Best Ceramics. There, and occasionally in my home, I have been working on commissions and personal work ranging from ceramic sculptures and wares to paper mache lanterns and animal portraits.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has definitely not been a smooth road, but I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of help, opportunities and collaborations with amazing people that have helped me along the way! I had a hard time finding my voice at MICA. I didn’t have a “dream job” in mind to shoot for and I struggled with my mental health, which would lead to artist blocks during school. It would make me feel anxious about wasting the work that my parents did and the scholarships I was given that allowed me to go to MICA. Then, come 2020, COVID hit at the beginning of my last semester of school. We didn’t have Art Walk and we lost our studio spaces and all the tools and facilities MICA had to offer, so I wasn’t able to finish the body of work I had set out to make for my thesis show. It was pretty devastating. But I’m grateful that I eventually got a studio space and found closure for my time at MICA by finishing some of those projects/ideas through a show I was in at Current Space in 2024!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My primary artistic specializations right now are ceramics, paper mache, and drawing. I like to do my paper mache work and drawing in my home, and my ceramic work in my studio space. I got re-introduced to working in paper mache in my adult life by Valeska Populoh and Rachel Rush, through volunteering in the Baltimore Lantern Parade. I have worked in this event for the past few years and then drew inspiration from the lantern-making process to make my own paper mache pet portraits. I made my first set of paper mache portraits of my mom’s four cats as a gift, and this eventually lead to me making pet portraits for wedding presents, birthday gifts, and now commissions. I use scraps of art-packing foam that would normally be thrown out at my current job, and I sculpt them and then paper mache and paint them to look like people’s pets. It’s a very time-consuming, but fun process! As for my ceramics, I really enjoy making wearables. This has mostly come in the form of multi-purpose ceramic helmets. I use a lot of humor and playfulness in my ceramic work and try and make wearable helmets that serve a purpose. One example of this is a helmet and wrist guard set I made, which was accompanied by a videoed performance I took using the set. It’s purpose is to be used for a “romantic, candle-lit dinner for one.” The helmet has a candle holder at the top, which I light using one of the wrist guards that houses a box of matches and strike strip. The other wrist guard holds a fresh rose, to “set the mood.” After lighting the candle atop my head, I can now enjoy my dinner for one. Another helmet I made is for feeding birds (on your head). It has a bowl at the top for holding bird seeds, a few bird perches around the bowl made with wooden dowels, and some handles for the user to take the helmet off and on. I have not yet successfully gotten any wild birds to freely land on my helmet, but I’m going to try taking it to a bird sanctuary and see if I get any takers there.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
One of my favorite podcasts to listen to and work alongside is Otherworld! It is a podcast where the host, Jack Wagner, interviews people who have had otherworldly, unexplainable, or paranormal experiences. But he also asks them about their life and background as a lead-up to whatever paranormal event or events took place. It can be spooky, but for the most part I find it very uplifting and fun to listen to. Some of my favorite shows growing up were X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I find that it scratches that itch I have for the “otherworldly.” Another thing I like to do while I work is watch videos of people restoring old antique objects. Nothing gets me more amped up to create than a process video of someone taking an old metal toy from the early 1900s apart piece by piece and fully restoring it and putting it back together so that it looks good as new. For the most part, though, I prefer to listen to music while I work. Sometimes melodic and experimental indie music such as Blonde Redhead or Grizzly Bear, and sometimes fun and upbeat music, like Santigold or M.I.A.
Pricing:
- Pricing depends on the size and amount of detail that goes into each piece
- With the paper mache portraits, I tend to charge somewhere between $150 and $300 because of their size and the hours of work that go into the process
- Helmets and ceramic sculptures that are larger in size can be priced anywhere from $300 – $700 usually, depending on the number of hours that went into the piece and how it was fired/surfaces
- People can reach out to me through my Instagram, website, or email address for any inquiries about commission work and pricing!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.irisannehughey.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irisannehughey/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iris-hughey-26b514310
Image Credits
Abbie Rugg
