Welcome to Graphic Knits. My name is Hailey, and I have an interesting story to tell for how I got to where I am today. Sometimes, this story feels bizarre, even to me, because it is so far off from what I ever thought would be possible. But somehow, it is possible, it wasn’t just magic, I actually made these decisions. This is my story.
I was born in Sumter, South Carolina. It’s a small town in America. Not the smallest, town, but small considering I am related to most of the people that I know. This is a place where people have big families and they believe in their town. Almost everyone there was born and raised there since generations and continued to grow their lives in the same place. This is my dad’s story. There are several generations of Hodge’s that are all born and raised and still living in Sumter. But all I wanted to do was escape.
I was raised by a scientist and an artist, and I would say that I am a pretty great blend of the two of them. In high school I had a hard time decided if I liked the arts or sciences more, being often confused when most artists I knew said that they hated math, but how could I love math… and painting? I thrived in both aspects in high school and ultimately I chose to go to a small liberal arts college to pursue interior design.
I quickly realized how much I hated that work, though, and changed my major for a business marketing and studio arts double major. I fell in love with printmaking, specifically screen printing, which was a great companion to my marketing degree where I was having to focus also on graphic design! This is where I found my first passion… making art with a message, and selling that message. I became obsessed with creating work digitally and producing it physically through graphic imaging and the CMYK printing process. This process includes a LOT of math and science, so it felt like I was fueling my two passions in the same moment. It felt good, and I made a lot of art. Some of it was great, and some of it not so good, but I was learning and loving every moment of it.
I couldn’t get enough of it and wanted to pursue my Masters in Fine Arts immediately after graduating with my two undergraduate degrees. I packed up my home and cat and drove to Mississippi to start making more art.
In the background during this whole time I was always stitching something. I was a hobbyist in knitting, crochet, embroidery, needle point, sewing… if it was handmade and an ancient technique, I was doing it in my free time. I found working on garments in my spare time like a therapy from the difficult and often mind bending work that was involved in grad school. It quickly became an obsession that was hard to put down to focus on other things. During the almost decade from high school to graduate school, I completed over 500 fiber related projects that I either gave as gifts, wore myself on a daily basis, or sold to make a side income. Then I couldn’t stop, and I started to incorporate my fiber obsession into my fine art. I started creating backdrops and installations that had a base in fiber with the printmaking component on the side. To say the least, this made my graduate committees quite angry. I received harsh critical feedback for working in this unconventional way for someone who was supposed to be specializing in printmaking.
To tell you the truth, I had finally found my true artistic expression… I found a way that my soul speaks through my work, not just in the obsession of the math and the symmetry or asymmetry of the crochet or knitted object, but in the history and the connection to life that this craft gave me. When yarn is running through my fingers and I was able to create an object that spoke louder than my own words, evoked love greater than any hug, and gave a sense of community and connection greater than any inclusion, I had finally found my home in my art.
Then I moved to Italy. Completely by surprise and kind of by accident. After completing my Masters, I went on an adventure to see the world, explore Europe with some of my colleagues from grad school, and to walk the Camino de Santiago. This was the trip of a lifetime. Together we saw the world’s greatest art treasures, the same paintings that we have studied deeply for meaning and color, but only by a computer screen. This was the magic coming to life. Seeing art in person can never be compared, that experience is unique and full of inspiration. We ate, ate some more, and then we drank… great food, even better wine. We celebrated life in it’s simplicity, by reaching the majority of our destinations on foot, experiencing life in the slowest way possible so we could also absorb as much beauty as possible. This trip was a lifetime of happiness in a one month time, that I will hold close to my heart. And it was just the beginning for me.
I left for the Camino de Santiago on July 25, 2016, and on that day I really didn’t know I would start a journey that would alter any plans I had ever made. Because before that moment, I was going to return home after a beautiful 2 months in Europe, I would move to North Carolina with some friends to open a joint artist studio and residency, and I would live on an open farm land creating art with the same people I was traveling with. It seemed like the most logical next move. It seemed like the best option at the time. It seemed like it was what I really wanted to do. But I didn’t know that wasn’t going to be my path, I was just happy.
The Camino de Santiago is a 500 mile (roughly 1000 km) long pilgrimage that treks from France through the northern regions of Spain. I walked for 40 days with nothing but a small 10 liter back pack holding everything that I needed to survive. Even though I look back on this time as being incredibly beautiful and wonderful, I’m sure that’s also how mother’s look back on the birth of their children… because it was also the hardest and most painful thing I’ve ever done. There were countless blisters, injuries that I still have to nurture now 4 years later, sleepless nights, fear of bedbugs, and the mental struggles that I never thought were possible. The Camino forces the pilgrim to think, because it strips your life down to survival mode: you walk to eat, you walk to sleep, you walk to arrive to a goal. The pilgrim life is simple, because it is void of distractions of every day life, work, family, etc. But that void creates a challenge to face all of your fears and personal problems head on, because there’s nothing stopping you. That’s where everything changed. I really started to evaluate what I wanted to do and be and experience. This began my journey living in Italy.
My sister was studying for her Masters in Florence Italy, so when I had finished walking all 1000 kilometers of the Camino, I came to stay with her for a while. I signed up for Italian language courses and some cooking lessons so that I could apply for a visa and residence permit. I struggled, but I went to those classes and I studied, and I eventually found a job opportunity. This job was in my field of art, and they were searching for an English native speaker. I had no clue at that point how long I would stay in Italy, or even if I would be good enough in Italian for this job, but I got hired on the spot at the first interview. In my shock, they also offered me a contract indeterminato (which means they cannot legally fire me), which is the hardest and most valuable work contract that exists in Italy. This felt like fate. Like I was doing something right in the right place.
Luckily my sister allowed me to extend my stay in Italy for what became 3 years of us living together in a small studio apartment in the city center of Florence Italy. And let me tell you, it really was the dream. I walked 5 minutes to work every day, where I got to teach students from around the world art lessons. I would then walk 10 minutes to get a glass of wine with a friend, and would end every evening cooking dinner with my sister or a friend. At the same time, my thriving passion for the fiber arts and crafts was continuing. I wrote a few patterns, created some unique pieces, but I lacked the courage to jump all in and publish.
Then came the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, and I found myself at home, alone, with endless balls of yarn and far more time than I ever thought possible. And that’s all that I did. I crocheted, I knitted, I wrote, I studied tutorials, I ordered several stitch dictionaries. I created with every minute of the lockdown. Little did I know that the lockdown for me would last much longer than anticipated because Italy as a country had a very complicated system for reopening, and with all of the unsure feelings, my work failed to reopen to the public for nearly a year. So, I continued to create. I don’t think that there was a single day in 2020 where I did not innovate and create a fabric with yarn.
Now I am pursuing a full time career in creating patterns to make my own designs. So that other makers can create with me, be a part of that community, and create something beautiful together. I’m in the process of opening my own business, with my very own art studio in the city center of Florence. I’m finally living my true passion.