Monica Yother - Studio 127
Text by Cindy Small
Huntsville’s Monica Yother, artist, illustrator and graphic designer, began sketching figures in her youth while listening to her favorite music. “As I was listening to music, I imagined what the music itself would look like visually,” says Yother. “So I started sketching dance figures using different colors and loose, expressive strokes to capture movement.”
After pursuing graphic design in college, Yother got a job as a designer for a billboard company working full-time, but continued painting on the side, doing commissions and free-lance magazine layout and design when she could.
In 2008, a friend introduced Yother to the director of Huntsville Ballet Company who then approached her to design their logo and brochure. “They were looking to rebrand and I was given the opportunity to come up with the season’s art. Instead of using photos, I immediately went back to those original dance figures I had drawn years earlier,” she says. “I started thinking in general about all the adjectives that describe ballet...powerful, beautiful, graceful., and so I just started painting with those words in that would capture that essence.” Yother painted a dance figure for them that has simply become known as “Ballet Woman,” which has won several local and regional awards and continues to represent Huntsville Ballet in all of their branding.
Yother has since painted many works for their performances, often donating her own pieces for auctions benefiting Huntsville Ballet. In 2009, Yother applied and was accepted into Lowe Mill where was able to create and design in her own studio space, as well as teach lessons and host painting events. Now going on her 12th year at Lowe Mill, Yother continues to create in the space she has named Studio 127.
Yother uses a mix of things to help others delve into their talents, and her painting events and parties have grown to include mixed media, abstract painting, and art journaling--which is one of Yother’s favorite methods of self care and can include a variety of images and colors, patterns, fabric, and limitless other artifacts.
To inspire her art journaling students, Yother tosses out writing prompts along with bundles of treasures (stickers, cut-outs, old torn book pages, bits of ledger sheets) for them to glue on pages added to old books. She emphasizes that art journaling is a safe space and there are no boxes a student has to check--as the pages fill with color its allowed to build a life of its own.
For Yother, a lifetime of bringing sound, motion, and feelings into a tangible creation is what being an artist is all about, and teaching others about this art form at Lowe Mill is just one more way she can channel her own creativity and talent.
“I just love being able to paint and teach in such a dedicated creative space of artists,” she says. “It’s wonderful to be able to invite people into the studio to help them discover and nurture their own creativity.”
For more information on commissions, lessons or to schedule a painting party, email monica@my-designs.net. Find her on social at @monicayother, @mystudio127 or vist her in Studio 127 at Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment.