Missy Roll has been a presence in the Birmingham food and beverage scene for a decade, but the Magic City personality has only recently leaned back into one of her earliest passions in life–creating visual art. This return to creativity, spurred by a switch to sobriety and a focus on creating without cause, has not only brightened Missy’s life–but the lives of those who get to cross paths with her fun pieces of art.
Missy’s rug-based arts and other works have quickly gathered the attention of lovers of things fun and bright, and her works will soon be featured in UAB’s AEIVA gallery and at an exhibit titled “Interwoven” that will feature all fiber-based works. “I’ve always been interested in fiber works. Quilting, working on the loom, or just sewing in general,” she shares. When she jumped back into art with her RedYellowBlackWhite brand a few years ago she began some punch needle work and loved it, but was soon ready for something bigger. She researched and purchased a tuft gun, which “gives you the ability to work a lot faster than it would by hand.” They were a match made in heaven, and Missy was ready to expand her canvas while still using the punch needle for fine details.
It didn’t take long before she built a frame that is roughly five feet wide and six-and-a-half feet tall, and got into the business of making rugs. She found a studio space at Common Place in Woodlawn, and is able to grow in her work while still focusing on a career she loves as Digital Marketing and Brand Standards for Avondale and Good People. “Being a creative more soothes my soul than anything else,” Missy reflects, “but being really good at my job and feeling important at my job validates my day-to-day.”
“Glorified doodler” is what Missy jokingly says she wants to be remembered as, but there is a lot of work put into each fun work of art. She’ll buy tufting cloth online then stretch it over the campus, before projecting the image, sketching, then creating a masterpiece. Yarn and wool both have a relatively-limited color palette, but that only makes the search more fun for the inspired visual artist.
“You’ll see a lot of shapes in my work. I love to work with snakes a lot because they’re flexible and so organic,” she shares. Alligators and other animals have made appearances as well. She loves the functionality of using rugs as art, noting how previous interest in jugs, baskets, and bowls as art was foreshadowing her future hobby. “Functionality has always been incredibly important to me in the work that I make. I think all work that has expression behind it is beautiful, and it’s valid and important. But there’s an extra element of having something that’s functional, and beautiful, unique, and special in your home.”
The name RedYellowBlackWhite is inspired from a song Missy remembers singing as a child while at her grandparent’s church. “Red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” Missy was quick to jump on a name that reminded her of those moments. “It felt familiar and it made me think of a really good time in my life. And the fact that it wasn’t taken. I was like ‘Oh my god, people are sleeping on this one.’” RedYellowBlackWhite’s naming inspiration draws parallels too, to the artist allowing herself to return to the structure-free style she loved as a young creative.
Missy grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she enjoyed art from an early age. So much so she decided to pursue it academically. She attended a school similar to ASFA in Tampa called Blake Magnet School for the Arts in high school, and loved every moment of it. After taking a year off, Missy attended the Ringling College of Art and Design where she had another great four years–but also started noticing something about the “sophisticated arts.” While she “had some awesome teachers, really great mentors, learned to ask myself questions,” it was also the first time she’d seen an institution organize art to where everything needed a formula and had to be conceptual.
While that method works for some, Missy felt that it inhibited her creative process. Sometimes she just wanted to draw without having to reflect on a moment from her childhood troubles. She would then attend grad school in New York at Parsons School of Design, where she had another great time but was taught more tough lessons about the world of collegiate arts. Missy was a full-time student working three jobs and trying to keep up with trust fund kids attending every possible gallery opening in the city. If she hadn’t been burnt out in Florida, she was ready for a pause on creating after New York.
The years after would feature a series of decisions that eventually landed Missy in Birmingham. She was teaching at the University of Tampa, and was dating another teacher who was originally from Trussville. They both wanted to leave St. Petersburg, although Missy loves her hometown and the art, manatees, and clear springs that come with it. Missy received a job in North Carolina that seemed like a great teaching opportunity similar to Studio By The Tracks in Birmingham. However, upon arrival Missy discovered both that studio and the state in general had teaching philosophies against her own and the then-couple made the decision to move again. They were headed back to Florida, when they decided–why not Trussville? And soon to be Birmingham.
Tumbleweeds are what Missy would have pictured if you’d told her to describe Alabama before she moved there, but she soon joined Birmingham’s “world of beverage.” Her first job in the Magic City was at Jim ‘N Nick’s since it was walking distance from her 5 Points South apartment. She enjoyed the move, and chose to stay after she split and her now-ex went back to St. Petersburg. She jokingly comments, “He went back to my hometown, and now I live in his hometown,” while crediting her friend Lindsey with helping her begin this new Magic City adventure, and Birmingham artist Byron Sonnier for introducing her to artists throughout the city.
Things have only flourished for Missy since those days. She has a wonderful partner, found daily purpose in a job she loves, a strong community of friends and artists, has a home in East Lake for 6 years, and a re-found passion for the art she had once lost desire for. Three years ago, she also made the decision to be sober for the first time since she moved to Birmingham–a decision she credits for rekindling her passion for creating.
“That allowed me to unlock a creative muscle that I had not been exercising for almost a decade. I would sketch and I would think about things, but was never pursuing any kind of projects or bodies of work,” the artist shares, reflecting on the two years she debated with quitting before it just clicked one day. “I feel really lucky that my mind and my body were ready for that. That we were in sync. It’s a lifelong struggle for people.” She shares how the experience changed her perspective: “Something I always connected to, not only as an artist but as somebody who was struggling with an addiction, was jumbled thoughts. I never took the opportunity to listen to myself and have those discussions with myself.” Now, she’s ready to listen.
While she’s enjoyed the cathartic approach of creating for herself and is not prioritizing money or gallery appearances, Missy does plan to expand her artistic collection this year. “I’m definitely ready to start pursuing a real body of work. I’ve had some things that I want to discuss with my work,” she shares. One plan for a future exhibit is centered around the “simplicity of happiness”, which has been on the artist’s mind heavily while witnessing what makes her mom, who now has dementia, smile. Is it present or past thoughts uplifting her mood? “It has me thinking so much about how happiness differs to all of us, and just the constant pursuit of happiness,” Missy shares.
Repetition is another focus of Missy’s, and can be found in much of her work. “To just note that something might not be what it seems,” she states knowingly. ”Or that we have to pay attention to things, and you get that through repetition. I’ve always been attracted to that.” She’s learned to not take her art so seriously and would tell young creatives entering the scene to “not be scared to just do something that you want to do without any concept or idea behind it.”
“Feel what you want to feel, and go through your stages” but don’t be afraid to create simply because you want to. No deeper purpose is necessary. Missy is thankful to be surrounded by a city full of artists who feel the same way. “There is nothing pretentious about this art scene,” she shares. ”Nobody’s nose is up in the air. It’s so comforting and so open and so accepting.”
“A happy accident brought me here,” Missy recollects of her adventurous journey to the Magic City, and how she’s happy to make purposeful steps forward in a city she loves. It’s safe to say, Birmingham is the winning city with the events that transpired and we’re thankful Missy and her art are here.
