With roots in punk rock, Molly McGuire waves flag for New Orleans with canvases at Jazz Fest 2017
by Missy Wilkinson
2017 marks Molly McGuire’s fifth year doing the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. A bass guitarist, she has recorded with Frank Black, opened for The Eagles of Death Metal and performed with Queens of the Stone Age. But the multi-instrumentalist isn’t at Jazz Fest to play music. She’s selling her art.
“Art was what kept me sane when a band was driving me insane,” McGuire said. “I’m so lucky to have gotten out of 10 years of punk rock bands without a criminal record or being killed or maimed.”
A native of southern Ontario, McGuire was born in 1971 to a graphic designer and a painter. They encouraged McGuire to use her artistic skills for something practical, so in 1990, she enrolled in a two-year sign-painting course at George Brown College.
“(Sign painting) uses squirrel hair brushes and one-shot paint. It’s way harder than you think it might be,” McGuire said. “It was hard-core learning to paint Helvetica for two years straight, getting muscle memory for cursive and slant lettering.”
That same year, McGuire attended Jazz Fest and fell in love with New Orleans. In 1995, McGuire and her boyfriend drove a van from Canada and rented a shotgun in the Lower 9th Ward. McGuire continued to make art, including sculpture for Jacques-Imo’s and a sign for the Mermaid Lounge
“Jazz Fest is absolutely what made us want to move here, because we saw all these artists and musicians who had a great life touring and playing music,” McGuire said. “Our rent was $265 a month. You could put some papier-mâché sculpture up in Kaldi’s and make rent. You could do gigs and pay your rent.”
McGuire worked as a touring musician from 1995 to 2007. In 2008, she utilized her sign-painting skills to fund a cross-country trip back to New Orleans, painting and selling circus banners from her van.
“I sold one in Las Vegas, one in Marfa, Texas, two in Dallas, and it got me home to New Orleans,” McGuire said.
Tired of touring, McGuire took a job managing the Bywater Art Lofts and focused on her visual art. Though she pursued a number of media, it was the circus banners that landed McGuire a sold-out show in 2011 at Antieau Gallery. In 2014, she was tapped to create the circus banners for "American Horror Story: Freak Show." Her work hangs in Red Truck Gallery (938 Royal St.).
Today, McGuire paints full time in her rural north shore studio. But she plans to return to life on the road — this time as a traveling artist. Next month, she’ll appear at an art show at SOMA NewArt Gallery in Cape May, New Jersey, with many more in the works.
“I’m going to do festivals all over the country,” McGuire said. “I utilize all the skills I have from being a touring musician. This is so much easier than setting up band gear, sound checking, setting up merch and puppets, breaking it down, driving eight hours and doing it all over again.”
McGuire says painting seems to be the clear career choice — especially because it’s what got her into Jazz Fest.
“That’s a huge sign to me,” she said. “I never got into Jazz Fest because of any of my bands, but I got in because of my art. I’m your quintessential person who came to see Jazz Fest and ended up moving here because I loved New Orleans so much. And that art is how I got into Jazz Fest is ironic, but it is also very serendipitous.”