Heather Allen Hietala

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Hietala
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Fiber, Mixed Media
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For years the staircase was my muse. Now there are vessels and seed pods in my journals. Ideas that I encounter are sketched in my journals and then a select few have a special resonance and inspire a piece. Once the piece is begun, it takes on a life or a story of it's own. As I respond to the process, a dialogue develops between the piece and me. The stairs allude to a journey, becoming metaphors for expressing various paths, transitions, and thresholds within life's experiences. The vessels and boats continue the exploration of a journey. The vessel can also symbolize self. This work draws on the viewer's intimate involvement with steps and journeys to elicit feelings and personal interpretations.

A boat symbolizes a journey and a vessel can symbolize self. The vessel is a metaphor of interior and exterior, of containment, of transport and journey, and as a tool like the boat or tatting shuttle, with the ability to create. It is both universal and personal. These vessels are enigmatic being boat pod shapes or pod tool shapes or tool vessel shapes. The vessel and boats allow me a vehicle to investigate new ideas, narratives and relationships.

Asheville
NC

Heather Hietala is a studio artist, educator, and permaculture gardener in Asheville, NC. The vessel, relationships and the ongoing journey of life inspire her mixed media work. She received her BFA degree in painting and sculpture from the University of New Hampshire and her MFA degree in textiles from the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth. Her work has been shown in numerous venues across the U.S. and internationally and is in the collection of the Agnico Eagle Gold Corporation, Toronto, Asheville Art Museum, NC, Racine Art Museum, WI, North Carolina Arts Commission, Fidelity Investments, MA, Gregg Museum of Art & Design, NC, and the Biltmore Estate, NC. She has received a NEA Regional Fellowship, a TN Arts Commission Fellowship and two artist residencies at Centrum Center for the Arts (WA). Her work is available at Momentum Gallery, Asheville, NC and Oeno Gallery, Ontario, Canada. heatherhietala.com

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