That creative freedom, underscored by the pairing of visual artists and tattoo artists, is essential in elevating the latter to a fine art form. Tattoo art continues to rise in status, building on the fungible space that blurs the boundaries of street art and studio art and gallery art and museum and auction art and fine art.
Hailey self-identifies on Instagram as a florist and lepidopterist (a person who studies or collects moths and butterflies, as exemplified by the late Vladimir Nabokov), so it’s unsurprising that her artwork emphasizes floral imagery, fine lines, and ephemeral designs.
Viewing examples of her work for the first time last month, we encountered a ripe, bright red strawberry, with a natural shine, and fresh looking green caps. Its elongated, realistic shadow drew our gaze to the left, evoking centuries of symbolism. Strawberries adorned the marginal illuminations of medieval books of hours. Pointing downward, they represented drops of Christ’s blood, and the five petals of their white flower signified his five wounds. Shakespeare referenced the delicate, heart-shaped fruit embroidered on Desdemonda’s handkerchief in Othello, and again when the Duke of Gloucester beseeches Bishop Ely to “send for some” in Richard III.
