Remi Hill doesn’t remember the exact age she began drawing, but her mother told her she has been quite artistic since age 3.
As she got older, she fell deeper and deeper in love with art and began to draw cartoons a lot during her free time.
“I would have to say that cartoons are my favorite to draw,” she said. “I was introduced to painting when I was 12 in an art class and it was at that time that I fell in love with it.
Hill loves so much about art, but what she adores most is that there is so much freedom while creating it and it’s extremely relaxing.
“I really like that there are no rules in art,” she said. “I mean yeah, there are certain techiniqes you have to learn, but there is no right or wrong way on how you want to approach art , you can completely be you.”
Although, Hill did not get all of her skills from anyone certain, having artistic abilities runs in her family on her dad’s side. Her late uncle Ben was a talented painter in Atlanta and her aunt and her two siblings draw as well.
Many artists have to be in a quiet setting or outside in the sun when they create, but when Hill is painting, all she needs is her paint, the canvas and a bit of music to get her creative juices flowing.
She explained that music goes hand and hand with painting for her because it helps to bring out the emotions in what she’s creating.
I’m sure music helps to pass time along, as the longest time she’s taken on a painting is 20 hours because the canvas for the particular portrait was extremely large.
One of the most challenging pieces she’s painted is a painting of the rapper Curren$y, and the reason this one was challenging is because she loves painting women more often than men. She loves men, but for some reason she seems to have a more difficult time painting them.
Some of her favorite paintings of her own are Frida Khalo, this one came out exactly how she wanted it to, one of the rapper J.cole and a rugrats piece that she’s gotten many compliments on.
An artist that she feels paints portraits with a ton of emotion is one of her all-time favorites, Frida Kahlo.
“I love her for so many reasons, but one reason specifically would be because she represents women empowerment in such a male dominate field,” she said.
Hill hopes to one day inspire other young people to paint and create whatever their hearts desire just as Kahlo has done for her.
Although, with all the inspiration from Kahlo and other artists, with success comes trials, and at 14, life took a turn for Hill and she stopped creating art.
“I just picked art up again when I was 21,” Hill said. “I believe I dropped art because people around me told me that art wasn’t talent and I wouldn’t make any money from it and all kinds of negative things.”
Hill mentioned that she was young then, and she listened to the comments individuals would make and it caused her to make a decision that impacted her life in a drastic way.
The current senior at Southern University never played sports or had any other hobbies that she enjoyed as much as drawing and painting, so when she stopped creating art, she went into a depression.
“My depression caused me to leave Grambling State University, where I attended school prior to going back home to try to get some help with my depression,” she explained. “I started seeing counselors and we started talking about the past and eventually my counselor advised me to start drawing again, and I did.”
Once Hill made the decision to begin drawing and painting again it really helped her to conquer her anxiety and depression.
With her recovery, she grew happier and is performing well at school, where she matriculates in mass communication and is excited about what is up next for her following college.
Hill says she chose mass communication because she’s interested in learning more about digital art. Also as a mass communication student, she got the opportunity to write for her college newspaper, which she really enjoyed because of the creativity that was allowed while writing the news stories.
“I’m even learning how to design newspapers at the moment and I’d like to say that I’m pretty decent at it,” the Louisiana native said. “My professor usually notices that I have an eye for art by the way I notice certain mistakes in the art.”
Now that Hill is taking in so much knowledge about drawing, painting and digital art. She hopes to one day open her own art gallery.
As of today, she has sold a total of six of her paintings and two prints of her art.
“It was the best feeling ever,” she said. “Art is the only thing I feel is the most natural for me. When it comes to art, I don’t have to think so hard, I feel like myself when I do it and it makes me happy when others appreciate it.”
In five years Hill knows for sure that she will have her own website. She also wants her own art gallery, so she can continue to sell her art. She thought about going to art school as well because you can never know too much about art. The artist says it’s so many things she looks forward to learning, besides art she would love to travel, whereas, she’s never really been anywhere outside of Louisiana.
Q. If you had a chance to meet one artists in any field, who would it be and why?
A. I met a new artist online I love her work her name is Olivia her Instagram name is @fiyahb0mb her art is amazing.
Q. What is one thing many people don’t know about you?
A. That I used to play the viol, a musical instrument of the Renaissance and baroque periods, typically six-stringed, held vertically and played with a bow.
Follow Remi Hill on social media: @remymarttin
