Heather Albright

Heather Albright is an oil painter currently based in Portland, Oregon. She earned a BA from San Diego State University and studied abroad for her senior year in Italy at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze. Her art has been collected internationally, with a piece residing at The Museum of Contemporary Art of Florina, Greece. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in Italy and California and has been awarded an honorable mention at the Del Mar Fair in San Diego.

Heather’s work revolves around capturing the intricacies of plants and flowers throughout their life cycle, exploring her internal landscape as she processes childhood traumas and her mental health journey, and expressing the duality of chaotic creative energy and the need for calm and order.

Even though the subject of each painting can vary, the golden thread connecting them all is the compulsion to better understand. Many pieces explore the tension found in feeling ambivalence—experiencing two or more contradictory emotions simultaneously. At first, what seemed to be opposing poles has turned out to be expressions of coexisting realities, such as hope and despair, calm and chaos, light and dark, which blend together to create a complex and beautiful symphony. Heather's love of color, texture, and light play together as she seeks to find balance and harmony within each piece.

Contact

www.heatheralbrightart.com
info@heatheralbrightart.com
@heatheralbrightart

Interview

What inspires your art practice and keeps you motivated?
My art practice is primarily internally motivated as a way to process my thoughts and feelings and to better understand myself. I have a compulsion to explore my internal mindscape through pattern, light, and color. I find inspiration in many places, from walking around my neighborhood to the way light interacts and changes everything, to different textures and patterns found in nature. When I am out and about, I try to pay attention to what grabs me and capture that feeling/sensation with a few photos, a voice memo, or a note for when I get back to the studio so I can further explore it. When my own internal chaos is the inspiration behind my art practice, I let my intuition guide where a piece goes, and it becomes an outlet of abstract expression.

How does your mission as an artist influence the work you create?
My mission to find balance and harmony while experiencing complex and sometimes contradictory emotions impacts the painting style of each piece. Most of my work tends to fall somewhere between abstract and realism, depending on which emotions are the driving force behind it.

Can you share a key part of your creative process that helps you stay focused?
I have a tendency to be too tight and restrictive when I first get into the studio—thank you, perfectionist brain. So before I start working on any of the detailed work or more meaty parts of a painting, I warm up with a low-stakes exercise where it’s okay to fail or make a mess of it without consequences. For the exercise, I always use the same size canvas paper, no more than three colors plus white to play with, one brush, and 15 minutes to start to finish. I don’t try to depict any certain subject; I really let my intuition guide me to wherever it needs to go. By using a set of parameters to work within, I can easily complete it without too much decision fatigue. I’ve found that it not only helps keep my brushstrokes more loose and effortless, but my brain has an easier time getting into the creative flow. Win-win all around.

What mindset tip do you rely on to overcome challenges in your art career?
When I feel overwhelmed or a project isn’t coming together as easily as I hoped, I remember this saying from my time abroad: "piano piano." It basically translates as "little by little" or "slow and steady." It reminds me that by taking small steps forward, progress is being made even when it’s hard to see. It encourages me to have patience and trust the process of the messy middle stage.

How do you hope your art impacts the world or your community?
I hope my art brings people a sense of belonging and a deeper understanding of both themselves and each other.