Stella Hughes
Resident Artist
Etchwork, illustrative, a little strange. Stella builds creatures out of animals, anatomy, and organic forms — an eerie storybook rendered in bold line.
She's from Hickory, has been making things with her hands as long as she can remember, and came to tattooing by way of graphic design and years of realism portraiture. The turn happened the day she drew her first monster, the kind of thing she'd drawn constantly as a kid. It gave her imagination back. Creatures are still her favorite work.
Her process is collaborative: questions first, rough sketches, room for the idea to shift as it goes. She'll work from references, but she won't recreate someone else's tattoo. What you leave with should be yours.
Quieter in person than her art suggests, more of a listener. She refills at the lake, line in the water, nothing on her mind.