Hillary White was born in Belfast, Maine in 1982. Her childhood was filled with lots of make-believe, with a curiosity towards horror and fantasy. This interest grew because of realistic, unusual dreams she had from a young age. At 10, she began to show artistic ability. And at the same age she also began practicing transcendental meditation™. Meditation and dreams have remained an important part of her life and art.

In 2000 she graduated Belfast Area High School, with a strong focus in art. Her first two years of college were spent as a painting major, at Maine College of Art (2000-2001), and then Massachusetts College of Art (2001-2002). She switched majors following the second year, and enrolled in the new media program at the University of Maine in Orono (2002-2003). After her third year she decided to take a break from school.

2003 marked the start of the rabbit persona, and it remained when she began creating graphic designs under the name of WHiTe RaBbit. In 2005 she met and collaborated with local photographer Charles Dufour on a “body canvas” series, where she would draw imagery on herself and others using markers. She had her first collaborative show in June 2006 at Dufour’s “Indigo Gallery”, in Belfast, Me. A few of her paintings were shown in galleries in Maine and California during 2007. She also held her first solo show featuring Belfast locations and surreal work at “The Blue Goose”, in Northport, Me, August, 2007.

Throughout 2008 she worked on a 34 piece (so far) series of “Master Rabbit Head” paintings, consisting of the re-created works of famous artists; the faces’ of subjects replaced with rabbit masks. And 2009 began with a portion of this series on display at the “White Heart” in Portland, Me.

Congratulations in winning the Design the Dew contest, Hillary! Can you tell us a little bit about what made you want to enter the contest?

Thank you very much for the congratulations; I appreciate it! Like most who entered, I wanted a chance to have my art seen by a larger audience, and thought this was a great opportunity. It was also very appealing because the contest left a lot of open space for individual interpretation of what the ‘Dew attitude’ meant—I work best when I feel there’s lots of room to be free. So, I was very enthused about this contest; it seemed fitting! The winning entry was personal, inspired by some very surreal life events, which also sort of summarize my beliefs and outlook… I tend to live through my art. The message behind the work (for those who aren’t aware) is, “Life is about manifesting your own reality… Dream, and then do it. Do not falter, even if the path becomes dangerous or there are ‘stinging’ things along the way… Follow your white rabbit (Do the Dew)”.

The painting, more specifically, was based on an event that happened to me toward the end of this summer… I was filming a masked “dance” sequence near my house, for a music video I was making. I was wearing a homemade “antler mask” that encompasses one’s whole head, all white with no eye-holes, I was using masking tape as a top, and bare-footed in flip-flops. Okay. I set the camera up, put the mask on and stepped into the scene, innocently crunching on something while stepping (which didn’t register as an issue; I live in a wooded area, the ground is crunchy here and there). I danced around for a good 5 minutes then took off the mask, and stopped the camera… With the mask off, I was suddenly aware of a buzzing sound. I looked down. There was a swarm of ground bees around my legs, and on my feet! I had stepped in and danced near, a nest of bees! I screamed and dashed for the house. On my frenzied run I grabbed a water noodle from the ground, because it was the closest thing to a weapon I passed, and used it to swat the few pursuing bees before I sprinted inside. Once indoors, I escaped my pants to avoid any bees still in/on them, grabbed a broom from the closet, and attacked the remainder that had followed me in, all the while screaming like a banshee. After the last bee was squished, and I slowed down to let it sink in, I realized I hadn’t even been stung! It made me feel slightly charmed, but simultaneously silly for the record freak-out. I took it as sort of a “joke from the universe” (that’s how I generally see things), because of certain circumstances I was going through at the time. Maybe one should learn to take a deep breath and stay in control of one’s self next time they’re in a seemingly “chaotic” situation? Everything will be fine, it’s not necessary to put so much attention on the chaos.

And months later, upon reflection, a painting was born!

(Incidentally, if you’re curious about the video, you can find it on YouTube here: [link])

(And if you’re wondering what happened to the bees, some animal eventually dug up the nest and ate them!)

Rabbits are quite prominent in your work. There must be an entertaining story behind that, we’d love to hear it!

A story, yes—how entertaining is questionable… Always had a fascination with Alice In Wonderland. In 2003, as a college assignment, I had to create a business logo for myself. I took the fact that my last name is “White,” combined with my childhood love of the story, and I became WHiTe RaBbiT. A bit after that, I was doing graphic designs under the name, and it stuck.

The white rabbit is essentially Alice’s guide through Wonderland, and to me, he’s symbolic of her heart; he’s the thing that’s fascinating enough to seize her attention in a moment and compel her to follow… “There are times in our lives when we must make choices based more on instinct than intellect. Often, the soul recognizes its choice before the rational mind has time to process the information.” The white rabbit symbolizes that inner voice, the soul’s choice.

Life is funny, the importance of something that happens isn’t always clear at first, it usually needs time to settle and become clear. My life has always felt somewhat surreal and synchronistic; and it wasn’t until much later after creating the persona that I met my own white rabbit, so to speak… Mid 2007, I made a paper mâché rabbit mask and wore it in a video I created using Rihanna’s Umbrella song, just for fun. And after that I ran with it, depicting the mask in paintings and more videos. And then it blossomed into the Master Rabbit Head series through 2008.

Where do you get your artistic inspiration from?

I’ve always had vivid dreams full of bizarre imagery from a young age. I can recall a lot of them, and have kept track of a few in sketch books. As a kid, I was always interested in make-believe, in horror and fantasy, mythology, super heroes, lots of illustrated children’s books, like William Steig’s work, etc… I think what draws you early on in life is sort of indicative. There was a long time around age 6, where almost every dream I had consisted of me being chased and stabbed by a ventriloquist doll with a knife (due in part to me having watched a horror show starring one). You can glean what you will from that! I draw a lot of inspiration from other artists as well. Because of my interest in art at a young age, I grew up somewhat familiar with the various art movements and artists. I am very interested in pop culture; movies, music, and dance resonate with me, anything with emotion and expression, anything that seems to have a “soul,” something I can connect with… I’m a huge fan of the music group The Knife (I just realized the irony there…).

Do you have a preferred medium for working in?

I’m more of a painter, and I use acrylics. They suit my style; I tend to work quick and they dry quick. In my opinion, they have a “fun” consistency.

How has winning the Mountain Dew contest impacted on you as an artist?

It made me feel like people are really noticing my work! I had sort of a rough patch the last few years, and painted my way through it. So for me, winning this felt like a huge affirmation that I was doing the right thing, and to keep doing what I’m doing as an artist—to keep living and painting it. It means a lot to have people admiring the work you do. Having an idea or feeling and getting it out creatively is a magical thing, and it’s even more rewarding to have an audience to connect with. The contest has broadened that audience.

How did you find out about deviantART, and what made you join our community?

I heard about DA back in 2003, my junior year of college. A classmate mentioned it, suggesting I join. At the time I was a little unsure about putting myself online, and too busy with school. A couple years later I finally did, because the time felt right. I wanted to get my work out there, and it seemed to be the largest on-line art community. And since joining, I have made lots of great connections; DA is really wonderful in that way. I now have good artist friends on the other side of the planet even!

If you could study with any artist, living or dead, who would it be?

That’s tough. I admire a range of styles and time periods. There’s so much to learn from all the preceding movements… Although I really relate to Impressionism, I would go with Dali I suppose. It’s that connection to dreams and the subconscious that will always be intriguing to me. I would have loved to see him work on The Hallucinogenic Toreador. He just had a way with light and color, it would have been interesting to see it happen. I also like how expansive he was, working in media other than paint.

Do you have any words of advice for your fellow deviants?

Yes! The same advice I was given early on by another artist… don’t let anyone else change your style. Meaning, don’t let someone else dictate what YOU want to do with your work. Figure out what you love and go after it. And stick with it, even when it gets hard. Andrew Wyeth said it best: “I think one’s art goes only as far and as deep as your love goes.”

Last but not least, what does 2009 hold for Hillary? Any exciting artistic projects in the works?

I enjoy painting away in the little rabbit-den, but I’d really like to get my work more into the public eye. I put a portion of the Master Rabbit Heads series on display at a gallery in Portland, Maine this month, fittingly enough at a place called “White Heart” (and I’d like to check out other venues as well). For the opening night of the show, a good friend volunteered to be a torso-painted model. Events like that down the road would be fun, especially with more models. I’d also like to do more short video projects once the winter lightens up. Hopefully…