About Heather

Heather Bartlett

Heather Bartlett is a multi-media artist and art advocate in Southern Maryland.  Her accomplishments include works in sculpture, written media, painting and photography.  Her focus on themes such as self-image, beauty, feminine spirit and sexuality set her apart in her work.

Heather was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, in 1970. Her creative impulses appeared early on, manifesting in many hours of drawing and coloring.  She loved secretly peeking at her mother’s various art endeavors – paintings and drawings, most of which remained in a trunk during the duration of Heather’s childhood.

While in fourth grade, Heather began drawing damsels in pointy hats, ladies in sun-dresses and platform shoes and even won a toy shopping spree at a nearby department store for her drawing of Abraham Lincoln for a President’s Day contest.  Her love of art continued throughout school, and she relished schoolwork assignments that required dioramas, posters or drawings.  In high school, she took every possible art elective provided through the public school system.  Unfortunately, the possibility of art as a career was never posed to Heather and there was little encouragement for her to continue on that path.  She was soon forced to abandon her artistic endeavors after the birth of her first child when Heather was only 15 years old.

Nearly 15 years later, a few years after the birth of her second daughter and along with the encouragement of her husband Robert, Heather was finally able to pursue art again. She drew and painted; rediscovered photography, and became involved with community theatre, particularly promotional materials, props and art direction. During that time, she experienced a personal renaissance and began an ongoing exploration of the insecurities and self-criticism endured by young women bombarded with messages to conform to unrealistic ideals of beauty to earn social status. She also explores themes of sexuality that are sometimes challenging to local standards of public display.

The production side of theatre’s stressful and ephemeral nature left Heather a bit depleted, so she changed gears and transferred that energy to reviewing theatre and photographing shows for publicity.  In 2002 this culminated in her arts website Allzah.com, which she designed and maintained technically with Robert.  For two years she wrote and provided photography and graphics for Allzah.com until the demand for reviews became too great for her and her volunteer staff.  She had already begun to move forward with some artistic endeavors, so Heather closed the site down to new reviews in 2004 and decided to pursue art and writing full-time.  Allzah.com has since morphed into a portal for Heather’s various web endeavors.

During a friend’s summer party, Heather met and quickly became involved with artist and writer William Hardy who is a source of great technical and emotional support for her work.

In the past five years, Heather has pursued figural and portrait photography, written art and social criticism, and increasingly explored sculptural work, including ceramics and mixed media constructions. Among her works are publicity photos and posters for Port Tobacco Players, Hard Bargain Players and the 2007 DC Fringe Festival; a small mixed-media representation of Charles County featured prominently on the cover of Maryland Life Magazine; and a relief carving “Great Mother Oak” for the Wye Oak Art Project for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources-a work that was denied exhibition for its controversial subject. She is currently pursuing a photographic series of nudes exploring body consciousness.  She is also working on a fantasy series of photographs and digitally altered fairy art for an imaginative photographic book of magical creatures. Heather is also continuing with her highly collectible shoe watercolors and will be offering exclusive designs through Corner Studio Artworks in La Plata, Maryland.

Heather and artist Tammy Vitale have embarked on a project titled Body Politics.  Body Politics is art that questions beauty standards and the pressures that men and women face every day to alter their appearance to meet the standard.

Heather invests herself in the local arts community and promotes art in Southern Maryland, is a member of the Charles County Arts Alliance and lobbys county commissioners for increased funding and accommodation for the arts. She has donated work for fundraising auctions for various causes, including Children’s Aid Society and Zonta.

Heather is developing an online store at Heather Bartlett Art where she also maintains a blog devoted to her art endeavors.