Inland by Heather Lea Reid

Opening Reception: Friday April 15th

Painter Heather Lea Reid: My newest series of work, Inland, explores the multifaceted impact of everyday experience. This body of work explores the dimensional effects of environments, emotions, thoughts, and discoveries through investigating familiar and unusual occurrences. Instead of revealing a narrative though, I relate an overall mood that encompasses the heart of an experience. Layers of paint and abstracted color reflect the nuances that shape reality to show that moments are not isolated. Location, career, education, family, entertainment, money, health, history, religion, and consumption all define our ways of being. As social creatures, we internalize our culture. Understanding is built upon social frameworks that influence the moments that define our existence. To me, this approach leads to the most accurate visual representation of existence.

These paintings center on people in my life, my daughter in particular. Works influence and respond to each other because I keep many paintings going at once. Paintings reflect observation, but portray the co-existence of internal lives and external structures. Vivid color and abstracted shapes push the idea that existences occurs on many levels. Inland works to connect the everyday to the broader understanding.

“I am honored and excited to exhibit at the home of such magnificent works of art. Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park is an exceptional place to experience. I want to thank the Pyramid Hill staff and community for letting me share my work.” – Heather Lea Reid

Artist Bio

Heather Lea Reid’s artwork is born out of a love of personality and pattern. The resulting subject matter of her work is a mixture of figurative and pattern and design. For her, “art making gives me space to indulge in my romanticized admiration for thoughts, emotions, sciences and passions. I aspire to represent detailed and layered truths.”

Artist Statement

I am attracted to sinuous reasoning. Art making gives me space to indulge in my romanticized admiration for thoughts, emotions, sciences and passions. I aspire to represent detailed and layered truths. I start from drawings and ideas derived from everyday experiences. Instead of revealing a narrative though, I relate an overall mood that encompasses the heart of an experience. In turn, my drawings build into detailed paintings that express the depth of daily experience. I am compelled to communicate something that I cannot express in words. Instead, I communicate my thoughts and feelings with the use of line, color, and form. My work sees more than I do. It has a knowingness that I cannot articulate in any other way. No matter what my intent has ever started out to be I always feel I end up searching for a larger understanding. Money, location, career, education, family, entertainment, health, history, religion, and consumption all define our ways of being. Learning from that but avoiding the white noise that saturates daily experiences, I play with surfaces, employ striking and deep colors, strong lines, atmospheric mark-making and representational imagery. I apply levels of meaning by building up layers and mixing abstract and symbolic elements. I want to create not only a two-dimensional work but also a living environment. I fill corners and in-between spaces with visual thought. I create living art inside a sentient space. Art that evolves and becomes a part of the space in which it resides. I want my work to be its own visual ecosystem. Through my art, I shape reality and give viewers’ spaces in which to mold, stretch, experience, and consider their own perceptions. Or, perhaps, I allow them a space to silence the white noise and hopefully experience the meditation that I feel while creating my pieces. My goal is to connect to the essence that makes us human. To me, this approach leads to the most accurate visual representation of complex understanding.