Heather Hietala

Heather Hietala is a studio artist, educator, and permaculture gardener living in Asheville, NC. The vessel, relationships and the ongoing journey of life inspire her work. She works in a wide array of mediums including cloth, paper, clay, wire, gut and natural materials. She received her BFA in painting and sculpture from the University of New Hampshire and her MFA in textiles from the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth. Her work has been shown in numerous galleries and museums across the U.S. and internationally including solo shows at Oeno Gallery, Bloomfield, Ontario, Blue Spiral 1, Asheville, NC, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, NC, Steeple of Light Gallery, Kansas City, KS and Sculpture Square, Singapore. Her work is in the collection of the Racine Art Museum, WI, Asheville Art Museum, NC, Gregg Museum of Art and Design, Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Arts Commission, Raleigh, NC, Wingate University, Wingate, NC, Agnico Eagle Gold Corporation, Toronto, ON, Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA, First Union Bank, Charlotte, NC, Horn Collection of Contemporary Craft, Little Rock, AK, and the Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC. Her work has appeared in the periodicals Fiberarts Magazine, Surface Design Journal, American Craft Magazine, Art Quilt Magazine, Senshoku Alpha, Verve magazine and Carolina Home + Garden, and in the books Real Life Journals, Naturally a Book, Book Seeds, Small but Powerful, 500 Handmade Books Vol 2, 500 Quilts, Quilt National 2011, Fiberarts Design Book V, VI, and VII, and International Textile Design. Following her love of words and writing she has written reviews and articles for magazines and wrote “Weaving Contemporary Rag Rugs”, Lark Books 1998, which was translated and published in Japanese by Mori-Tuttle Agency, Inc., 2005. She has won several awards include an NEA Regional Fellowship, and a TN Arts Commission Fellowship. Residencies include Centrum Center for the Arts (WA) and Penland Instructors New Works Retreat, Penland School of Craft, Penland, NC. Her work is available at Momentum Gallery, Asheville, NC and Oeno Gallery, Ontario, Canada. Hietala lives and works in Asheville, NC. heatherhietala.com