You know you have arrived at Bill Hemmerling’s Ponchatoula gallery when you see an old rusty car door with “Visit Rock City” hand painted on it leaning near the entrance of the Louisiana Furniture Gallery.

Opening the old wood frame glass door is like opening a treasure chest. Fresh country air combines with the clean scent of wood that softly envelops the visitor. Waiting in the unpretentious gallery rooms is a variety of pieces made of wood by many imaginative artists. Original photography and art scales the walls from floor to ceiling.

In the back of this most unconventional place, through an extraordinary doorway, is a warehouse of a room filled with painted wonders and a sense of peace—the perfect setting for Hemmerling’s gallery. Leaves of a tall palm in the middle of the room are gently moved by an old fan. A footed bathtub in a corner is the recipient of softly trickling streams of water from a fountain made of an old watering can and a bucket. Orange and mottled carp are at home in the pool at the bottom of the tub. A tufted leather sofa and chairs made from limbs live nearby in eccentric harmony.

And all around, covering walls 15 feet high, are Hemmerling’s paintings, on every sort of found item.
He doesn’t buy paint. It just appears after people finish their painting projects. He doesn’t use canvas. The surfaces are materials he finds on side streets or other unlikely places, or that also appear as if by magic.

One friend brought pieces from a dismantled barn. Old doors, windows, louvered screens, paneling, tin and wire screens find a new use. “Unusual stuff,” Hemmerling says.

Bill used to be a runner, but gave it up for ice cream. Fortunately, before he discovered his main food group, he happened to stop at the gallery during a run and saw that the walls were empty.

Being of a positive mindset, he reasoned, “I can paint and help their walls look good, and maybe sell a picture.” Shortly after that, he found wood that had fallen off a truck. Then he found a big piece of tin and some cans of paint on the side of the road. His art career had begun.

As Carol Siekkinen, Louisiana Furniture Gallery director, explains, “Bill paints from the heart. There’s no formal training. He really has extreme talent, and is a tremendous draw for the gallery.”
Bill Hemmerling is not completely without training, however. For many years, the Chicago native worked as a “visual supervisor” for Sears stores.

“I was the ‘decorator police,’” he says. Presentation standards had to be met, and he made sure the guidelines were followed and that the stores maintained a comfortable continuity in the format. No matter where a Sears customer shopped, it felt familiar.

Bill’s subjects are diverse, but center around a type of life found mainly in the rural South. Black women and children in church-related activities, or black men immersed in their music, seem to predominate. There is an inherent sincerity and dignity throughout his works, and often a spiritual theme. He says, “One day when I let God out of the box I built, he danced with me.”

The ordinary definitely can take on the extraordinary when Bill finds a subject interesting. The quietness of a single chair in an empty room seems magical. Discarded window screens are turned into an eccentric, fascinating canvas that can merge with the surface behind it. Scenes painted on assorted lengths of old ceiling boards seem to have levitated from the wall.

His talent breathes new life into familiar New Orleans scenes. He paints an occasional still life, or even a self-portrait, but those are infrequent. His work was just recently accepted by the Hemisphere Gallery of the Dallas Market Center.

And in 2003, Bill Hemmerling set a New Orleans JazzFest sales record. There must be something to that ice cream diet!

Bill Hemmerling’s gallery is located within the Louisiana Furniture Gallery at 495 Southwest Railroad Avenue in Ponchatoula.