From Art to Wine

The Housewife Rebellion

So how does an artist make the move into wine?

During COVID, Nicole began drinking more wine, and noticing something familiar. Much like the art world, the wine industry often treats consumers as if they need to be educated rather than understood. Instead of meeting people where they are with marketing and artwork that truly resonates, it creates an intimidating experience for many.

Emerging from COVID, Nicole showcased her work at the Saatchi Art Fair in Dallas in May 2022. Exhibiting as Housewife Rebellion, she dressed as a 1950s housewife in an experimental blend of costume and visual art. Nicole had the idea of making wine labels out of her art. So she went to Office Depot, got some blank labels, printed out her designs and stuck them to wine bottles, displaying them alongside the large original paintings. She couldn’t legally sell the bottles, they were purely artistic props, but the response was overwhelming. Visitors kept trying to buy them, offering increasingly higher amounts. At the end of the four-day art fair, a well respected artist told Nicole “I’m set up clear on the other side of the building, and everyone is talking about Housewife Rebellion wine. Whatever you do moving forward, it needs to involve wine.”

In the days following the art fair, Nicole’s work went viral when Lynda Carter, yes Wonder Woman herself, shared it across all her social media platforms. Nicole spoke with a top gallerist who was informed of her high sales performance at the fair and the Lynda Carter posts. Ultimately the gallerist decided not to take her work, as it is just too feminine for the old man in charge. This rejection ignited her to dive into the wine industry.

The wine industry seemed like the perfect fit for Nicole. Her family settled Fredericksburg Texas in the 1800s, and she watched it go from being a sleepy town of antique stores to a fast growing, reputable wine region. She was excited to get in on the action and her artwork would be the catalyst for the breakthrough.

A few years prior, shortly before his death, her grandfather confessed family secrets to Nicole. Her family, the Kallenberg’s, owned a pharmacy in downtown Fredericksburg. It was, in fact, the only pharmacy in a tri-county area during the time of Prohibition. With access to resources others did not have, they quietly kept the hill country wet, filling prescriptions for ‘medicinal’ whiskey and other forms of alcohol to treat various aliments. The law allowed for 1 pint of spirits for every 10 days per patient, but the Kallenberg’s would exploit this loophole. The backroom of the pharmacy became an illicit distillery and Nicole’s grandfather, Alton, along with his loyal mule, made the deliveries. As Alton put it, “the police didn’t bother children”,  which is why the job fell to him. Texas went dry in 1919 and repealed Prohibition in 1935, two years after the federal ban had ended.

With this knowledge, Nicole felt that it was time for the Kallenberg’s to get back into the alcoholic beverage industry, but this time legally. She forged partnerships with winemakers and growers in both the Texas Hill Country and the Texas High Plains, ultimately convincing some of her favorite producers to collaborate with her. Her trailblazing art career and bold creative vision made it an easy yes.

But building the wine company was a bumpy ride. Nicole faced down one of the largest and oldest bourbon brands in a trademark dispute. A brand that was created for confederate troops and idealizes hyper masculinity. An established brand that didn’t want to see the Housewife Rebellion come to market. In Nicole’s legal response, she sent over an image of a 1950s housewife she painted wearing yellow dish gloves, with both hands up waving the one finger salute. It worked! And the Housewife Rebellion wine company forged ahead.

The Housewife Rebellion is Nicole’s largest art project to date. Every aspect of the company is based in creativity. It has allowed her to expand beyond the canvas, to performance art, architectural art, and feeding the senses through curation of tastes, smell, music and media.

 

“Andy Warhol had The Factory, I have the Housewife Rebellion” – Nicole Heere, Artist