Interview by North Hall High senior and Abernathy Cochran intern Tori Skinkle
Meet Heather Elyse Head! Heather is an artist and potter in Gillsville. You can consistently see her at different art and pottery shows around Hall County and North Georgia. Having lived in the area for all of her life, Heather has been with Trey Davenport for six years and their daughter, Rowan, will turn five this December.
We want to thank Heather for spending time with us recently and sharing her art and love of Hall County.
Question: What inspired you or led you to your current career?
Answer: “I like to create, it’s a form of therapy for me, I don’t feel right unless I’m making something; and the clay in this area is just perfect so it works out. And I like to make weird things, the quirkier the better. So I just wanted to see what I could do with it.”
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Hall County, and what do you love there?
A: “I like Fish Tales in Flowery Branch. I don’t go to a lot of restaurants, I do a lot of cooking. Other than pottery, that’s my main hobby. But I really like the Grouper Tacos there, and I like the atmosphere of the place just there on the lake.”
Q: How long have you lived or worked in Hall County?
A: “I was actually born in Hall County, my whole life has been spent within a few steps of Hall County. So when I wasn’t officially living in Hall County, I was right on the county line. My childhood was in Banks County but then I could walk just a few feet and be in Hall County. So I’ve been here pretty much my whole life.”
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met in Hall County and why?
A: “I’d have to say my grandfather-in-law, Joe Craven, he’s the one that started Craven Pottery I believe it was in 1971. He’s very interesting, I think most people that have met him would say ‘that’s the most interesting person I’ve met’ so it’s not just my connection to him as my grandfather-in-law. He’s a really interesting guy, he’s just fun, he’s been everywhere, he’s done everything, he’s such an inspiration to me. He’s the one that taught me how to do this, I was interested in getting into pottery but it just seemed like a small community and I didn’t know how to get started and a few people were not as willing to show me some of their secrets. But as soon as I told him I had an interest in it he was like ‘Get over here! I’ll show you how to make something on the wheel.’”
Q: What is your favorite childhood memory?
A: “I’d have to say picking blueberries at my aunt Dorothy’s house. I always looked forward to that every summer, I’d ride my bike up to her house and pick as many blueberries as I could. It was meaningful because my grandfather had planted the blueberries there so I felt like I was being able to connect with my family in a different way because I didn’t get to know my grandfather that well.”
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
A: “I would say France because I like to eat a lot of good food and when I travel that’s one of the main things I do is seek out the food of the area and you can’t really beat France for good food. The other thing I like to do is go to art museums and you can’t really beat France for art museums so that would be the perfect place for me.”
Q: What is the first movie you remember seeing in a theater?
A: “I really didn’t go see many movies in the theater as a child, I was happy to just watch ‘The Last Unicorn’ or ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ on VHS over and over. But my Aunt Elaine took me to see ‘Beethoven’ the movie about the big dog.”
Q: What advice would you give a crowd of people?
A: “The thing that I wish I had learned a lot earlier in life is just be yourself. Be as weird as you want to be. Don’t try to fit into any box because you’re not going to thrive unless you’re being your actual self. And the right people will come to you if you’re genuine.”
Q: What is your favorite music/three bands you would like to see?
A: “I love music, going to concerts has been one of my favorite things in life. I’ve really prioritized seeing the bands that I could see. If I had a time machine, I would go see ‘The Beatles,’ ‘Fleetwood Mac,’ and ‘Led Zeppelin’.”
Q: What local business makes you the most nostalgic about Hall County and why?
A: “It’s definitely not the same as it was when I was a kid, but I would have to say Lakeshore Mall because I just spent so much time there as a child. And it’s very different now but just pulling into the parking lot, I just have all these memories of going and hanging out at the mall with my parents as a child.”
Q: Choosing anyone (past or present and a non-relative), with whom would you love to have lunch? And where locally would you have this lunch?
A: “If I was going with a past person I would go with Oscar Wilde just because he seemed so interesting and if I was going to pick a current person it would be Neil Gaiman because I think he would just be a really interesting person to have a conversation with. We would probably go probably to Johnny’s Barbecue.”
Q: What is your favorite thing about Hall County?
A: “It’s such a big place but there’s such a sense of community still. There are so many friendly people you can encounter. It doesn’t have the same feel as the larger counties, it still feels like a small town area.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?
A: “Hopefully making pottery.”
Q: What is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
A: “I am a pretty private person normally so there are a lot of things that people don’t know about me, but I think it would surprise people to learn that I have a flock of sheep and I have some pet geese.”
Q: What three words mean “home” to you?
A: “Family, pets, and pottery.”
Q: If you were cast in a major motion picture and had your choice of anyone to be your costar, who would you choose?
A: “I guess I would go with Jack Black, I think he’d make me laugh a lot.”
Q: If you had a full-time staff member that was fully paid for, who would you choose?
A: “I would want somebody to help me clean. Because unfortunately with most of my hobbies like pottery, cooking, and baking I make a lot of messes so I end up spending way too much time cleaning just to try and contain the chaos. So if I had someone going behind me cleaning up some of my messes, that would be perfect.”
