Leigh Ann Williams Hickey
Leigh Ann Williams Hickey is a working artist and educator who resides in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband and her dog. She is currently engaged in an 18 month residency at The Cedars Union in Dallas, Texas. She is a full time docent at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Leigh Ann received a BFA in printmaking from Texas Christian University in 1993, and an MFA in painting from Texas Woman’s University in 2010. She was an art educator from 1998 to 2019. Her teaching accomplishments include being a Fulbright Hays Scholarship winner and she was Associate Professor of Graphic Design and gallery curator at The Art Institute of Fort Worth. Leigh Ann has been a part of numerous juried and group exhibitions throughout the United States. She enjoys traveling and experiencing other cultures around the world.
social media @leighannwilliamshickey
EDUCATION
Masters of Fine Art
Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas
Painting major, Interdisciplinary minor, 2010
Double minor Art History, completion December 2013
Fulbright Hays Scholarship
"Culture and the Performing Arts of Mexico"
University of Texas International Latin American Studies
Summer 2006
Lifetime Texas Secondary Teaching Certificate
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas
Post Baccalaureate Program for Teacher Certification, 1998
Intensive Studio Residency
Vermont Studio Center
Johnson, Vermont, January 1995 and 1996
Color Theory Workshop, Studio Residency
Hugh O’Donnell Center
Bantam, Connecticut, May 1995
Bachelor of Fine Art
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas
Printmaking Major, Figurative Drawing Minor, 1993
Artist Statements
My work is a constant ebb and flow of what is happening within my life. I am a very raw and emotional person and my creative expression comes in many forms and mediums. I am currently working on several bodies of work. The most current bodies of work are created out of life events I have survived and I am learning to overcome. The art work created is part of my personal therapy and journey towards healing and finding my own identity. These paintings and sculptures tell stories through metaphors and symbolism.
EMPTY NEST SYNDROME
Empty Nest Syndrome is a series that uses paper wasp nests as a metaphor for the family unit. Some nests are fruitful and some are empty and barren. The children are often cocooned and shrouded in precious gold. The clock body creates a space for the nest, guarding and encapsulating it. The cicada is the keeper of time. The 17 years they stay in the ground is symbolic of my journey. The gem stones are all lab grown and represent the embryo grown through the process of IVF. My quest for a family was never fulfilled, I had an abortion when I was 21 then at 38, I found the love of my life and got married. I went through several rounds of unsuccessful IVF. I felt less than whole because I never had children. Society deems women as maternal, what does that make me? It has been a long road to get myself prepared to explore this work, which is ongoing. I seek to know who I am and what is my purpose, often feeling not enough. These paintings and sculptures express my feelings of being ostracized by my own personal choices.
DECAY
Decay is a body of work that started after I went through bilateral frozen shoulders and a recent shoulder reconstruction. I was in horrific pain and was in a constant drug induced haze. My only excursions out of the house were my trips to and from physical therapy 3 to 4 times a week. The highlight of my days became my chauffer driven escape to and from the torture. I became obsessed with graffiti covered train cars that lined the freeway on the 15-minute drive. The trains were constantly moving and evolving in textures and colors. I began to imagine where the trains had been and who had painted them. Reflecting on the transformation these boxcars had been through resembled my tattered body which had morphed over the now 4-year time period. I am constantly taking photographs of trains, walls, doors and windows that have been battered by age and layers of paint and grime. The idea that something can change with age and still be beautiful is important to me. This series consists of small and large-scale oil paintings on wood and canvas.
ENVIORNMENTAL AND SOCIAL
This series of mixed media work addresses environmental and social issues. World views verses self-views that affect our world at large, and that will impact future generations to come. The concepts of overpopulation, global warming, the proliferation of guns, immigration, and other societal challenges facing the world we live in. These aerial images are of benign things that become patterns we use and find a necessity every day, yet when confronted by them in a new way it changes the way we think of them. I use facts and numbers within the image to confront the viewer with the results of societies impacts, embedding thoughts and patterns into the consciousness of viewer.