An Interview with Heather Weller

Heather Weller's work is a beautiful combination of finely-rendered traditional style and modern sensibility. She uses classic techniques to examine the most timely of topics. We talked to her about art, life, and navigating college during a global pandemic. 

I love your work, it’s so rich and strong and full of meaning-- I love the symbolism in your Still Lifes. How did you get started creating art? How long have you been painting or drawing?

Thank you! The content of my pieces is something I have focused in on recently and it has taken quite the journey to arrive at this point. I started creating my freshman year in high school when a school counselor placed me in intro to art class rather than culinary arts. I was disappointed at first because I was really interested in baking, but I formed an attachment to the arts when I saw how great my instructor’s paintings were. My coming into the arts was an accident and my friends have often refer to me as “the accidental artist”. It is remarkable how life happens that way. I have been painting ever since for around nine years now, learning from every mistake like the one that coincidentally started my career.

Your work has quite a classical feel, in terms of beauty of form and technique, but with a modern twist. What artists have influenced you in your studies?

This description is accurate for my work; classical but modern. I have a love for classical art, so I started to consider how to make work that is unique and new while retaining my classical interests. This also relates to the artists that inspire me. I pull inspiration from everywhere both past and present. I find inspiration in the baroque artists such as Artemisia Gentileschi and Clara Peeters. The impressionist Cecilia Beaux is another favorite of mine as well. As for contemporary artists there are quite a few. I am eternally inspired by Roberto Ferri, Megan Elizabeth Read, and Nicola Samori. These artists are also classically based, and I find myself experimenting with similar ideas that are prevalent in their art. I also worked for Alexei Butirskiy for a time and was up close with many of his still lives. The experience furthered my interest in still life painting. Of course, my professors also influence my work. Diane Sanborn, Henry Schoebel, and Forrest Solis are successful artists and they really shaped who I am artistically. Overall, I try to keep a balance between contemporary and classical inspirations, and I believe that shows in the work I create.

Nina Simone said, “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” Do you agree? In what way does your work help you to understand these strange times we’re going through.

I certainly agree with that. Art imitates life and over the past year my work began to reflect the chaos. I have always said that art is what is left when words alone are not enough. I am not particularly good at communication so when I cannot tell, I can show. My work helps to validate my experiences and come to terms with reality especially in today’s situation. For example, my 2020 “Vanitas” gathered all the stories that made 2020 the year that it was and committed them to reality. Eventually the mind forgets but making this piece come to life really validated our reality and gave life to something intangible. We cannot hold the entirety of 2020 in our hand but to see the so-called “highlights” plain and clear makes things real and can help preserve that experience for the future.

The “Veiled” series is an interesting rethinking of the conversation about women as the object of the male gaze, and about the power of the female gaze. Can you tell us a little more about the inspiration for the series?

I am an advocate for equality, and I have been fortunate enough to study with like-minded individuals. Though, until recently most of the art history classes I took were male dominated and I began to believe in the idea that there just were not any female artists. When I came to university, I started to see that was not the case. There were always female artists, but they were silenced and forgotten to history. With the “Veiled” series I wanted to bring them back while addressing the problem. The women we are accustomed to seeing in historical art are constructed under the male eye. They are objects. I think it is important to see women from a woman’s perspective. So, the series covered many different areas of women in power and women in repression. The piece that captures the idea the best is “Tea Time”. I created a traditional setting with a playful or seductive, veiled figure on top of a dining table as a mock against the traditional roles of women as servants, or caregivers. The veil acknowledges the centuries of oppression, but it is also a progressive, defiant piece. Women are moving forward and there is no going back to silence.

You address the effect of Covid/quarantine in “Pandemic Priorities” and “Vanitas.” How has quarantine changed your experience as a student of art or your ideas about entering “the art world?” Does art school give you tools to help market your work in this new art world? 

Quarantine has been the most difficult struggle of my artistic career. I created “Pandemic Priorities and “Vanitas” at the beginning when I needed to understand what was happening and work through those experiences. As a student it was a way to cope with the changing world and it was a way to experiment with using art as a means of communication. Now a year into it, I am really feeling the effects. It has been lonely, isolating and at times frustrating with the demands being a student brings on top of the chaos. Though, quarantine has helped me to focus my interests in the arts and decide where I want to go. My current works in progress reflect this new stage of my life having experienced the full effects of quarantine and I am eager to share them in the future soon. I imagine this is something my professors are cheering about. They have stressed the importance of adaptability and the changing art world. My professors have also commented about the new art world that will emerge from this and have encouraged students to keep going even when it seems pointless because something good is coming for the arts in the future. I believe it is a revitalization of sorts.

Being a student during all of this has been almost unbearable at times. In short, I believe that there is a lot expected of students right now with little to no budge or lenience. It is admittedly intimidating to enter the arts at this time because of how greatly the field has been impacted by COVID. However, the preparations gained from art school will be advantageous. There is more stress on representation in the digital world which I think is great. The teaching has shifted towards online marketing allowing the potential to benefit more artists. It is a great opportunity as it permits the individual to further themselves without an institution.