Heidi Heacock is an artist based out of central Ohio, working primarily as an acrylic, encaustic and mixed-media painter. She has nine years experience teaching art in public schools and 15+ years experience as a working artist. Having grown up on a 7th generation farm, she draws inspiration from landscapes, nature, found objects, and mixed- media. As a child, Heidi would often visit her grandmother, who was a big influence in encouraging her love of the arts. She would praise her creative efforts, buy her supplies, and take her to classes, making Heidi’s beginning experiences with art-making peaceful and therapeutic.

When Heidi was in high school, she fell ill with a life-threatening illness, causing her to spend several months in the hospital and miss her entire sophomore year. When she returned to school she found the art room to be a safe space where she could express herself and explore calming, therapeutic techniques. She ended up studying fine arts in college, earning a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Ohio Wesleyan University, and went on to earn her Masters of Education from Mount Vernon Nazarene University.

Heidi’s artistic style has evolved over the years from large-scale, textural mixed-media landscapes to more colorful, abstract landscapes and designs. She began her artistic career primarily using acrylic paints and mixing found objects directly into the paint to create texture. She still experiments with mixed-media but has been enjoying creating with her new favorite medium, encaustic (hot wax), and has recently learned copper enameling. She can provide lessons on mixed-media, textural, acrylic paintings, or encaustic activities depending on your classroom set-up and access to ventilation. Her lessons typically involve choice-based, therapeutic activities, enabling students with new knowledge while also encouraging them to make their own artistic choices in order to express ideas meaningful to them.

Availability

June-August

RECENT PROJECTS: Fine Arts Festival, Bellefontaine High School. End of year art show for High School art students: Students helped curate, prepare, hang and display student-directed artwork culminating from the school year.