Congratulations to Heidi Brueckner for earning her place as a Finalist in the Boynes Emerging Artist Award 7th Edition!

Who are you?

I am a native Californian and grew up in the southern part of the state in the college town of Claremont. I moved north when I went to college at University of California, Santa Cruz. During the early part of college, I studied mostly Anthropology and Art History, and as part of the curriculum of the latter, I started taking studio classes and loved it. I then took a year abroad at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. A major priority of mine was to visit as many museums as I could, and I did. The experience was so inspiring that I realized my whole calling in life was Art and that I had been making excuses to myself why I shouldn’t major in it all along. I discovered that making art was my passion and really the only option for me going forward. I ended up earning a BA in Fine Art and a BA in Art History when I went back to college in California, where I focused on painting, which was heavily influenced by 20th century German art.

After college, I moved to San Francisco and have been living in the Bay Area ever since, with the exception of three years away for graduate school at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where I received an MFA in Painting in 1997. I am currently a Professor of Art at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA, where I’ve taught painting, drawing, and design for over 22 years. I have been married to my husband, who has a music composition business, for 28 years. We have two kids, ages 15 and 19.

What inspired you to utilize mixed media as a medium?

I make things in all different media. I love sewing, crocheting, jewelry making, collage, etc. Painting is my absolute favorite though so I identify as a painter, but I always have had a strong instinct to combine other loved materials with paint and to try to bring them into the illusionism of the painting.

I did a previous satirical series called Monsterbet which consists of 26 oil and mixed media paintings, based on the traditional format of children’s alphabet books, which has now itself been made into a book. Each letter of the alphabet stands for an invented monster that possesses a particular kind of quirk. The work touches on some of my favored themes of human vice, morality, and fear. Each painting conforms to a strict format of 16” x 16”, and always includes a border, text, and a central figure. The series enabled me to dive deeply into consistently integrating other media. From that point on, it almost felt unnatural to only use paint in a composition.

Currently, I have been experimenting with some alternative substrates engendered by the pile up of pandemic-related detritus. In an effort to recycle, I started by using paper bags because for a while we weren’t allowed to bring used bags back to grocery stores. I then switched to using pieced-together Amazon bubble mailers because of all the online ordering that was done during the shut down as well.

How would you describe your work?

My work at its core is about humankind’s understanding of itself. I study human nature, and its relationship to storytelling, with the ultimate sentiment that we try to live in a more socially and environmentally just world, which appreciates humanity’s differences.

Can you discuss the inspiration and thought process behind "waiting to wait"?

I was looking for another direction after finishing the long creation process of the Monsterbet series, and I wanted to revisit the human figure because it has always been a kind of a first love for me. I started working on portraits and then the pandemic hit. I almost immediately became solely focused on the subject because I missed people and felt a strong need to study faces and expressions. At first the paintings concentrated on people that I lived with. Then the work expanded to friends I couldn’t visit and also began to focus on people I met through traveling.

The process has been a different way of spending time with, or “seeing”, people and has also aided me in remembering what it’s like to travel and to meet new people. It has helped me thrive in the pandemic world by quite naturally allowing me to think about people intensely for a long period of time. This body of work rings very true to me, and its authenticity is guiding me to do some of my best work. It has been quite rewarding and personally important.

“Waiting to Wait” represents a heartfelt greeting I had in China with two young waitresses as I passed by. They were curious about me and I was curious about them. They exuded such joy!

Can you walk us through the technical steps of creating "waiting to wait"?

After taking that photo in China of the young women, I knew I wanted to eventually make a painting from it. It somehow reminded me of a less creepy version of Diane Arbus’ “Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967”, which I believe also was the influence for the twins from “The Shining”. I love how the similarity of the figures in Arbus’ work invites you to also start noticing the subtle differences between them, and that ends up becoming the main point of conceptual focus for me. Despite our differences we as the human race are also very alike.

The process started with the making the substrate of pieced-together Amazon envelopes that I described before. Then I did my own version of pour painting. For some reason I loved the idea of starting with randomness and letting the paint do something before the image began to interfere. The plan was also to let some of that random abstraction continue to show through, while integrating it in a visually logical sense into the final representational image.

I also started the women’s uniforms with a base layer or “underpainting” of some different art papers with very insistent flat patterns. This was an interesting challenge to try to integrate the pattern as well, by leaving some of it visible and yet combining it with the dimensional illusionism of the paint application on top.

I later went on to include semi-transparent tulle fabric for the glass doors and dichroic film on the fish tank as a sort of “overpainting” on the painted image below. Somehow including shiny sequins and tiles as decorative elements felt right for these young women who I imagined loved pretty, sparkly things. The decorative paper on the stair at the bottom reminded me of some of the decorative intricacies of the carved and painted architecture in China.

What do you hope to communicate to an audience with your work?

The work is currently taking the form of large-scale figurative portraits focused on individualistic narratives, which explore personality through self-presentation, facial expressions, and gesture. The work often inspects the under-revered, and appreciates the subject’s presence and dignity, giving pause to honor the person.

I have a pretty assertive aesthetic, and I’ve discovered that the color seems to be used as a kind of “equalizer” in terms of the way people are depicted. Because the color is divorced from naturalism, skin color is therefore eliminated, which for me is metaphorical for the hope that human society aspires to, and achieves, equality among races and among other kinds of human differences too. The work is meant to honor the entirety of humanity—not just one section of the population or one kind of person. Ultimately, I view the work as being about Love, the kind of love that understands individuals for what and who they are, including all their wonderment and imperfection.

Can you talk about your biggest learning experience during the process of creating your work?

I generally always try something slightly new in each work whether it be with materials, form, and/or content, so I don’t necessarily have one main experience that I remember. However, I will say that the years-long project of the Monsterbet series was too long, precise, and illustrative for me. I realized afterwards that the large-scale, expressive nature of the figure, and portraiture in particular, was what I was craving and ultimately I believe it is much more “me”, at least for the meantime.

Can you discuss your biggest success since starting your artistic journey?

I have been awarded several honors in the last couple of years ranging from Best of Show in some juried competitions to international art prizes. That is rewarding in the sense that there has been an acknowledgment of my work as being noteworthy. Being a bit of an introvert, it is very easy to sequester oneself and not get an outside reading on the work. Getting your work out there insures that you are not operating in a total vacuum and that there is some exchange and dialogue around it. I like to think art is ultimately about communication, so one needs an audience for that to happen.

At the same time, I consider another big success largely to be that I have grown to understand myself and my passion, and hence finding my inner peace.

What projects are you working on currently?

Recently, I turned some of my attention to painting people I have never met,

I inherited an antique photo album made by my great-grandfather who owned a trading post at a crossroads in Sheridan, Wyoming during the mid–late 1800s. He forged many friendly relationships with individuals in the local Crow tribe. He was an artist and photographer and photographed them for both documentary and artistic purposes. I am doing a collaboration project based on these photos with renowned Crow artist Kevin Red Star. Since both he and I paint portraits, yet with different approaches, our plan is to create an exhibit which includes the original photos and painted interpretations from each of us.

I intend to continue using recycled materials for substrates, which I believe speak to the current environmental pollution crisis and also to the ethos of many Native American tribes who have traditionally tried to live in an ecologically respectful manner.

What is your dream project or piece you hope to accomplish?

I don’t necessarily have a dream project at this point. However, a lofty goal I do fantasize about would be to one day have my work in the collections of some major museums. Art is what I love to do, and that acknowledgement is always nice to have in that something that you love to do.

Also, I hope my work in some way encourages people to appreciate and love one another, and to in turn understand the importance of social justice and respect for our earth and all its creatures.

As a finalist, do you have any advice for artists who want to submit to awards, competitions, residencies, etc.?

Do what you love to do and plan for spending time working at getting better at it. That dedication I believe becomes apparent in the work. Having said that, applying for things is sort of a numbers game. Expect a lot of rejection but know that something positive and lovely is bound to happen as well. Also, expect to not expect when and where that will happen. I have also learned however that the accolades are definitely not something one should base their self-worth on and that’s why it is really important to be grounded in the work and what it does for your own experience in life.

Lastly, I like to ask everyone what advice they would give to their fellow artists/photographers, what is your advice?

Hang in there! Just keep doing what you want. Not everyone will get or like your work—that’s ok. Trends in the art world come and go. Maybe at one point your work will align with it, maybe not. Do it for yourself and as a way to enrich your life. That is the most important part of art-making.

To view more of Heidi Brueckner’s work

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