Heather McAllister

Artist Statement:

Making and thinking are complementary activities that enrich and give meaning to my life. For me, the aesthetic work involved in playing with and discovering the expressive potential of materials is in and of itself a rich and compelling experience. My memories are often stirred by a mark, a colour, a texture. These stirrings propel me toward deeper expressions and explorations.  As I give myself to this deepening play state, freedom emerges. It opens me to remember in new ways or to have flashes of new insights:

“O the places I’ve been, the people I’ve known, and the interactions I’ve had!”

 I seek to convey psychological responses to these insights, and to partner with the materials in order to convey abstract expressions of what I find so alluring and enigmatic. Hence, transparency, translucency and opacity are not only material but also metaphorical.

 Always a student of the human experience, as a long-time teacher of the very youngest and also as a teacher of those who also teach, I delight in observing the power of the arts on human development. Intuition, non-linear non-rational thinking are released and become enabled by the arts. Not always measurable or even easily put to words, experiencing art, for both maker and observer, can move us all to gain powerful recognition of our humanity.

 As a woman born in the 1950s- a simpler time some might say- sewing taught me the joys of cloth.  Fabric became my first material for artistic exploration and expression and the first place I could break rules and push limits! Cultural norms, customs, and rituals shape our lifes’ timelines.  And, these influences evolve and change from generation to generation. In my earlier time, in my earlier places, few women, (wonderful examples like Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, Emily Carr not-withstanding)  found such artistic freedom as beckons us today.  For me currently, cloth situates alongside mixed media, oils and cold wax, wood, encaustics with molten beeswax, and just about anything I can get my hands on. 

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