Heidi Speck

Bio

My name is Heidi Speck. I’m based in Seattle, where I’m studying Visual Arts and Journalism at Seattle Pacific University. I primarily work in watercolor and ink and I lean towards narrative storytelling. Much of my art springs from personal experience, and is driven by my experience as fat, queer woman.

Artist Statement

The following works are based off of a short memoir I wrote after I quit ballet when I was seventeen. Dance, while an amazing outlet for my creativity and anxiety, led to a lot of hurt and trauma. But because it was a place I called home for so long—I started when I was five—I had to grieve the loss of many important relationships and coping mechanisms. The illustrations are based off of the original text that I called "New Home." In creating the paintings, I chose important moments in the memoir and created a visual story for them. While I processed my feelings writing the story, illustrating it deepened the articulation of my feelings swung from empowerment to despair over and over again. It helped clarify the tension generated by loving something that caused me a lot of hurt.

https://heidispeck.wordpress.com/