Ahoy!
I’m Townes Holiday Hetzer AKA Captain Townes. I’ve been enamored with all things seafaring for as long as I can remember. When I was 4 years old my family took a trip to Holden Beach, NC where I became the proud owner of one tourist beach store captain’s hat. After 10 years of constant use, that hat has seen better days and doesn’t really fit my head anymore; but it became a staple in my life which has simultaneously led me into pursuing getting my captain’s license and learning to sail. My love for the ocean and all things nautical has greatly influenced another area of my life…art! From the time I could hold a drip marker it’s kinda been my thing. Around 2021 I started getting serious about making art. I was already interested in sewing and I came across Thomas Campbell’s art and it really inspired me to merge sewing with my paintings. My parents both worked in the skateboard/ snowboard industries and have introduced me to the culture and that has also helped to shape and influence my ideas on art and design. I am 15 and I have never been to school a day in my life. Instead, I have pursued knowledge, learned from living and having experiences. For a while, we traveled all over the country in a 40 ft bus. We now live on 17 acres in the north Florida wilderness. Along with painting and sewing, I spend most of my time creating stuff like boardgames ideas, ceramics, ikebana arrangements and sailors valentines. When I’m not creating - I’m gardening, reading, petting cats, horseback riding or sailing. Don’t worry, I still manage to keep up with math and all the academic stuff.
BIO
Melrose, Florida-based young artist Townes Holiday Hetzer draws his inspiration from his time living in a vintage bus and traveling the country coast to coast, along with a love affair of all things nautical. Influenced by artists such as Thomas Campbell and Scott Richards, Townes' art seems to reflect his very nature - a sort of juxtaposition between a sea shanty and a flower field. Inspired by a deep love for the ocean and seafaring, along with interests in surf and skateboard culture; he has explored mediums such as watercolor, gauche, chalk pastel, shellcraft, sewing, wood working, and pottery. Although still in his teenage years, Townes has traveled the US and abroad. He’s spent time living in Ohio, California, and Florida. Townes has forgone traditional schooling in favor of an education gained by self-led interests and living a life of adventure.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Nautical with a twist of tropical. My work is like a weatherworn ship captain that fell in love with an exotic island princess. I like to embrace the imperfections in my art, like the warped planks and tattered sails of a ship. Through the use of old magazines and scraps of my painted watercolors and gauche I quilt together bodies of work that reminds me of patchwork sails that have been mended many times over the years. My inspiration has come from the coasts of California, the shorelines of Florida, and the beachcombing of North Carolina, where I have spent many summers collecting shells and shark teeth. I love exploring bright and whimsical colors, and portraying things unexpectedly, like waves and palm trees in hues usually seen in vivid sunsets and hibiscus blooms. From the carnivorous plants that adorn our window sills to the coconut trees of South Florida and the crashing waves of the Atlantic, my art is a reflection of the bits and pieces of my childhood.