Jacksonville artist Heather Hailstones' work is about to appear on close to 50,000 cans of beer.
Hailstones, who attended Fletcher High School and the University of North Florida, will have one of her paintings featured on Untitled Art’s All Together beer can labels later this month.
On Monday’s First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross, she explained how the collaboration came about:
“I'm a fan of Untitled Art, and I drink their beer all the time. And I’ve always really admired the art that they have on their cans. I always thought it was, you know, kind of similar to the art that I made. So I decided to just send them an Instagram message and say, ‘Hey, I think my art should be on your can.’”
Untitled Art, which features a different piece of artwork on the labels of each of its beers and other beverages agreed, commissioning Hailstones to create a piece for their All Together cans.
“It sort of evokes the flavors of the beers and IPAs, which is very green and bright, just abstract shapes,” said Hailstones of the abstract image she created for the project.
Untitled Art is a Wisconsin brewery that distributes its beers in more than 20 states, including Florida. The brewery's All Together IPA is unique not only for Hailstones’ artwork, but for its recipe, which was actually created by Other Half Brewing in New York.
Other Half shared the All Together recipe with other breweries and encouraged them to use it, with the caveat that a portion of the proceeds be donated to local groups that aid workers in the hospitality industry, which has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Untitled Art is one of several breweries who agreed to do so.
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Once the cans are released, they will be available locally at craft beer shops such as Alewife and Beer 30.
Hailstones has previously exhibited her work locally in several places, including the Cultural Council’s holiday pop-up shop at the St. John's Town Center and the Haskell Gallery at Jacksonville International Airport. But, she is especially excited about the fact that her work will now be seen nationally.
“It's pretty cool. Actually, it's really fun to think that tens of thousands of people around the country are going to be holding my art in our hand, looking at it in their fridge. Pretty weird idea, but I'm excited about it.”
Hailstones added that even though she doesn’t usually drink IPAs, she’ll make an exception in this case.
Heather Schatz can be reached at hschatz@wjct.org or on Twitter at @heatherschatz.
