Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Farrell
Hi Heather, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve always been an artist. Even as a young child, I dreamt of taking over the Peanuts cartoon after Charles Schultz retired. I was always drawing, decorating my room, entering art contests. Being an artist as a profession was not a consideration from my parents when I was planning college, so I didn’t pursue it. After some years of being miserable in various psychology jobs after graduating, I did end up going to art school in Boston. I still fought the notion of being an artist and often suffered from thinking I wasn’t good enough and I’d never make it and that it was a frivolous pursuit. I had an art teacher once tell me that I needed to clear the cobwebs and be more free with my work. It has been a lifelong challenge to clear those cobwebs, to the point that I gave up on pursuing art as a profession for 18 years. I was always creating, painting and drawing but just didn’t think it possible as a career. I moved to Los Angeles with my teenage daughter after I had secretly thought for years about making a move to the west coast once my daughter graduated from high school. I wanted to be closer to a thriving and exciting art scene and needed to get out from under the narrow thinking of the Midwest. I knew there were more galleries and more opportunities in LA. My daughter decided she wanted to move to LA as well, so with much careful planning during the early days of the pandemic, we finally made the move in June 2021. While I admit, it can be challenging to find my way here and my community, I have a resolve stronger than ever to make it and I realize that with that empowering mindset, my art has gotten stronger and bolder. I’ve eased up on the idea that I have to accomplish things by a specific timeline and that my life and this art journey will unfold as it is supposed to. Those can be hard lessons especially when you are looking to control outcomes. I still consistently look for opportunities and new avenues where my art might fit in but I accept the idea that my art career pursuit is a journey and one that I will never be able to turn my back on again. Coming into these conclusions more fully has allowed me to be calmer, for my art to be more free and fun and for me to be receptive to possibilities.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been an easy road but I don’t think it is for most artists. I often am inspired by other creatives who have really struggled and had to have day jobs (sometimes their whole lives, myself included) yet still maintain their integrity and relentless pursuit of artmaking of all varieties. There is so much rejection and no one prepares you for the rejection of silence…where you simply never hear any kind of feedback or email response or call back, even if you politely ask for it. I’ve really had to learn to keep pushing through the rejections.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am primarily a painter and I work in acrylics. I occasionally draw works on paper and I also create mixed media works, using colorful vinyl adhesive and Swarovski crystals. Those works tend to take longer and often I like the quicker results of painting, although a painting may still take a couple of weeks. A mixed media work involving cutting up strips of vinyl and placing tiny crystals on birch board may take a month or two. I am proud of the fact that I have cultivated patience with my work – both in the creating process but also in the knowledge that some works won’t be successful or have the intended visual outcome I was striving for. I no longer see an unsuccessful work as some sort of flaw with me as a person or as an artist but rather that I will need to make some bad art in order to make the occasional good art. That is really ok.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Patience and self-acceptance.
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