Marieke Heatwole
June, 2006
Title of Show
No title
Medium
Recycled metal and found objects
First Friday Reception
Friday, June 2, 2006 from 5 to 8 PM (our Grand Re-Opening Party is at the same time)
Artist Statement
Five years ago I nearly lost my life to suicidal depression. My choice to live brought with it a sense of urgency about what lay ahead of me. For the first time since childhood, I was excited about life. I began to search for an artistic outlet and took a silversmithing course at the local university.
The first time I worked with molten metal I knew I had found my medium. Ultimately my imagination transformed the small design elements of jewelry making into enormous sculpture. I had to learn to weld.
I now spend my days forging creations that come to me out of cast off metals and other organic materials. I love channeling elemental forces to make metal malleable and expressive. I collaborate closely with a landscape architect to create original sculptural pieces for the outdoors. Clients are welcome in my studio, friends apprise me of scrap metal destined for trash bins and the metal recycling center has my wish list of treasures.
I am in my element.
Biographical Information
I am a child of the Pacific Northwest. I was born in Seattle where we sailed the waters of Puget Sound, hiked and skied the Cascades and biked the San Juan Islands as a family. I graduated Magna Cum Laude in Environmental Studies from the University of California, San Diego and returned north, settling in Ketchikan and Juneau before buying a home in Anchorage in 1999.
I first sold beaded and silver wire jewelry as a hobby at the Ketchikan Blueberry Festival in 1994 where my booth design won first place, a harbinger of the bigger things to come. I am a wife and mother of two young children which I joyously but precariously balance with my metal work.
