* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Hollis Heichemer was born in Binghamton, New York, and currently splits time between Philadelphia and New Hampshire. Heichemer’s abstract paintings are deeply inspired by nature, and her own experiences and interactions with the natural world.
Hollis explains the work by saying, “Painting and drawing is an investigation into the edge of where reality and imagination are blurred and where tragedy and beauty are interconnected. I find an expression of this blurred line can be explored through an association with the time of day when night is falling, when the sudden darkness is at once confusing and threatening. Through painting, I am creating a space where one senses, experiences something which then alters our relationship within that moment. The colors of my paintings are drawn from my relationship with the outside world which I then connect to a bigger picture, to a series of reactions—responses that begin once the colors are on the canvas. I am drawn to painting in order to go into a deep space, colors I can look into and want to look into because they invite me with hints of finding something. My paintings are the experience of this unknown space.”
Heichemer has exhibited throughout the United States including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, as well as Internationally in Italy and Ireland.
She has been the recipient of various awards including The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund Grand, and Fellowships at The Vermont Studio Center and Artist in Rural Ireland Foundation.
