Kentucky Artist’s New Mural Commemorates Recovery, Hope After Floods

Podcast - Inside Appalachia Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Lacy Hale’s art is decorating more of Appalachia's landscapes.

The eastern Kentucky artist is probably best known for “No Hate in My Holler,” a screenprint she designed in 2017 that has spread across Appalachia on TV shirts, tote bags and billboards.

Hale is also painting a growing number of murals adorning mountain communities. One memorialized a foundational midwife who delivered more than 1,000 babies in the town of Pound, Virginia. Another garnered controversy for its imagery of an opossum amid pokeweed.

Her most recent mural is located in Whitesburg, Kentucky, where it was officially unveiled in July.

Hale spoke with Inside Appalachia host Mason Adams, describing the new mural and sharing stories about how it came together.

“The design is a blue sky with a big sun at the top, and there's a redbud tree that is reaching toward the sun, and really blooming and full and thriving. Then there's a calm stream at the bottom, and there's some mountains in the background. At the bottom, there are these … I call them orbs, but they're circles of different colors that represent flowers or hugs, like the XO.

“This summer, I've had an assistant paid for by the Cowan Community Action Group. They do so much good work in Ledger County, and they placed 45 high school students in different businesses and nonprofits in Letcher County. We got an intern. She helps me prime the mural, and she'd help me mix paint. She helped me get ready for community groups to come out and help us paint.

“We were finished with the community involvement portion, and we were sitting there on the steps. We were going to go in and fill in detail. We were talking and she was like, “You know what? Wouldn't it be cool if community members could come and add their thumb prints and paint to represent the redbud blossoms?” And I was like, “You know, you're 16, 17 years old. That's one of the best ideas.” I was just blown away. It was so awesome. Her name's Chloie Webb, and I was just thrilled. And I was like, “Yes, let's do that.”

“So many people came out and added their thumbprints and would take pictures and remember which step they were on. Families would come out and put them together in a little grouping. I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about it, because it was just such an excellent addition to this mural, and it made it even more special.”

Hale is already at work on her next mural.

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