Heather Sterling-Minder
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Artist Statement |
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At a young age, due to unforeseen circumstances, my family and I were hastily uprooted from my place of birth in the California Bay Area and transplanted in Siskiyou County in the beautiful mountains of the Pacific Northwest. At this time, I was mostly self-taught as an artist, drawing and painting whenever I could, while receiving bits of knowledge here and there from my grandmother and mother's little doodles gracing every piece of note paper in the house.
I later had the wonderful opportunity to study art at Humboldt State University with a focus in painting and life drawing. Within the bachelor of fine arts program, I attended painting and life drawing classes weekly for three years and in my free time, conducted my own life drawing sessions with family and friends. After receiving my bachelors degree from Humboldt, I continued to study art on my own, researching the techniques of early and modern day masters, with a hope to never stop improving my techniques as an artist.
Today, I continue to represent the beauty of the human form while educating myself in different artistic subjects such as color, form, and composition. My most recent commission is an ongoing Norse Mythology Book project which includes numerous illustrations and paintings. I am an experienced art instructor of all ages, and especially love teaching children as I have four of my own. With a talented architect for a husband, I receive meaningful critiques and ideas about my art, adding another important layer to my growth as an artist.
[As a small child, being lifted out of my home in the city without warning, then placed in a very small town in the mountains was the beginning of what has become a great devotion to nature. By this sudden immersion into unspoiled natural beauty, quietness and remoteness, I was forced to feel and see things differently as I once had, and experience a raw and vivid introduction to my emotions,relying unfailingly on my escapes into art and the natural world for healing. Though unexpected and shocking, and perhaps traumatizing, I believe this to be something so ideal...this abrupt relocation which transformed me into a person so attached to, and appreciative of the beauty of this world with all of its nature, souls, and dreams.
I am not sure what the category is in which my art would be placed. Through the representation of the human figure, my art is symbolic of the closeness I desire to achieve with nature, and attempts to depict the healing and otherworldly visions that are not seen but rather felt or experienced within it.
For myself, I hope to continue my artistic journey for the rest of my days, and to never stop learning and striving to experience the emotional healing and inspiration that art and nature create. What others experience when viewing my art is entirely personal, but what I wish for them, is for there to be something healing and spiritual...or maybe an enhanced or deeper recognition of nature,souls, and dreams.}
- Heather Sterling-Minder
I later had the wonderful opportunity to study art at Humboldt State University with a focus in painting and life drawing. Within the bachelor of fine arts program, I attended painting and life drawing classes weekly for three years and in my free time, conducted my own life drawing sessions with family and friends. After receiving my bachelors degree from Humboldt, I continued to study art on my own, researching the techniques of early and modern day masters, with a hope to never stop improving my techniques as an artist.
Today, I continue to represent the beauty of the human form while educating myself in different artistic subjects such as color, form, and composition. My most recent commission is an ongoing Norse Mythology Book project which includes numerous illustrations and paintings. I am an experienced art instructor of all ages, and especially love teaching children as I have four of my own. With a talented architect for a husband, I receive meaningful critiques and ideas about my art, adding another important layer to my growth as an artist.
[As a small child, being lifted out of my home in the city without warning, then placed in a very small town in the mountains was the beginning of what has become a great devotion to nature. By this sudden immersion into unspoiled natural beauty, quietness and remoteness, I was forced to feel and see things differently as I once had, and experience a raw and vivid introduction to my emotions,relying unfailingly on my escapes into art and the natural world for healing. Though unexpected and shocking, and perhaps traumatizing, I believe this to be something so ideal...this abrupt relocation which transformed me into a person so attached to, and appreciative of the beauty of this world with all of its nature, souls, and dreams.
I am not sure what the category is in which my art would be placed. Through the representation of the human figure, my art is symbolic of the closeness I desire to achieve with nature, and attempts to depict the healing and otherworldly visions that are not seen but rather felt or experienced within it.
For myself, I hope to continue my artistic journey for the rest of my days, and to never stop learning and striving to experience the emotional healing and inspiration that art and nature create. What others experience when viewing my art is entirely personal, but what I wish for them, is for there to be something healing and spiritual...or maybe an enhanced or deeper recognition of nature,souls, and dreams.}
- Heather Sterling-Minder