It’s a story of emotions, experiment in colour and a black hat that inspired an entire series of paintings.
‘It wasn’t just the black hat,’ says Nickola McCoy, creator of the 36 paintings that comprise her ‘Black Hat’ series.
‘It’s more about the emotions that went with the black hat; the feelings derived from seeing the black hat.’
Ms McCoy is a talented young artist who has been painting for about 20 years, the last 10 of which have been on a serious level.
None of her pieces have ever been part of any exhibition and she says she wants to keep it that way.
However, people have been buying her paintings over the last 10 years, and her work has been recognised by the Cayman National Cultural Foundation which awarded her The Achievement in Art Award in 2003.
When the McCoy Prize was first handed out in 2001 it was Ms McCoy who received the highly coveted prize, which is an award for Caymanian artists who show exceptional talent.
The McCoy Prize is sponsored by the McCoy family (not relations of Nickola’s) of North Side.
The Black Hat Series mushroomed out of a period in Ms McCoy’s life when she was in a creative slump, devoid of inspiration, and recovering from an illness.
In the midst of her creative barrenness she met Mr. Maurice J. Snell, the man with the black Stetson hat, and of whom she now says ‘he’s my muse.’
Just the presence of Mr. Snell and his black hat was enough to stir in her a desire to create.
Interesting and well-disguised representations of Mr. Snell’s black Stetson, which never leaves his head when he’s in public, show up everywhere in the series.
The pieces in the series are an eclectic blend of multi-media montages, textured paintings, collages and almost indescribably creative artwork.
When her creative juices began to flow, she refused to let inhibitions quench her desire to be innovative.
‘I don’t know what it took, but for some reason my mind focused on Mo’s hat and his demeanour and the way he wore his hat, because he wears it just like a traditional cowboy.
‘He takes it very seriously. It’s his personality; and I thought ‘how original and here I am worrying about every body else and what everybody thinks about my work; why don’t I just be me?’
‘You know, if I want to do dark and dreary stuff let it be because I want to do it. If I want to do light and airy stuff, let it just be me.’
What resulted from this decision was the discovery of a new-found boldness and a level of creativity that could light up the eyes of all who have the privilege of viewing these truly magnificent works.
Artistic instincts
In a sense, the Black Hat series presents a Nickola McCoy prepared to follow her artistic instincts wherever they may lead, and who is not worried about whether people will be critical of the plunge she is taking to reinvent herself.
‘I have decided that if I feel like doing washes, that’s what I feel like doing and that’s just what I’ll do.
‘If you notice, the media in this piece changes; this is a mix of ink, acrylic and pastel, because I wanted to create a kind of softness, a movement in the sky.
‘This is what I want to portray. This is me and I’m walking toward something that’s alive. It’s a new, colourful journey.’
The depiction is of someone moving toward a bright horizon, which is a stark contrast to the place they are leaving. The colour of the person’s head blends with the destination, not with their immediate surroundings.
That’s deliberate, says Ms McCoy.
‘I want people to notice that the colour moves straight through her head, because her head is already at her destination.’
The inevitable swirls remind the savvy viewer of the theme, and the awareness is that the black hat is a symbol of positiveness and hope.
She has not named the piece as yet, but she is of a mind to name it, The Journey.
Heeding her muse
Another piece puts the spotlight on the blackness which derives from her relationship with her muse.
‘I coloured it completely black and I used ink and then I have just a little bit of colour in it, because that’s what it felt like when this person came into my life with inspiration; this black hat; this, Mo.’
She always wondered, about people who say they are inspired by other people.
‘Have they really, really been inspired? But now I know what it’s like to be inspired by someone. You know, it’s nothing in particular that they do, but it’s everything that they do (that) inspires you.’
Her 36 pieces of art, which stem from this encounter with Maurice ‘Mo’ Snell are not going to be mounted in any gallery, but pictures of them will be in her soon-to-be-published book which will be titled, ‘McCoy’s Eyes; Mo’s Theory.’
This is her first series.
When the inspiration is not there she can do little creative work. A painting which started in 2001 was not completed until 2003, she says.
‘Some are like that.
Some pieces of work you just put down and you can’t do anything until the rest of it comes through, she said.’
But that same painting Ode To The Protector became one of her treasured pieces. It is one of the two that survived Ivan.
With the muse, though, 36 pieces of quality art were created in less than one month.
Ms McCoy says that persons wanting to buy a piece from the Black Hat Series will be able to identify the piece in McCoy’s Eyes; Mo’s Theory and then inform her of the selection and pay for it.
The money she makes from the sale of paintings in the series will go towards her four-year art studies in Cornwall, England.
She expects to leave for Cornwall on 3 September.
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