MFA 2020 Artists MFA 2020 Artists: Heather Stivison

Biography

Heather Stivison is a former museum director and past president of both the New Jersey Association of Museums and the Mid Atlantic Association of Museums. She recently left museum practice to return to her original background in studio art. Since then, her work has been exhibited in over 50 group exhibitions in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, and Kentucky. She is currently an elected member of the Art League of Rhode Island and is represented by Norton Gallery in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. She finds art and poetry in the sea and sky.

Statement

In daily solitary walks along the beach, I am overwhelmed by the vastness of the ocean and by the sense of how inconsequential human life is. And yet, in these very same moments when I feel my insignificance in the limitless cosmos, I also feel a liberating joy in life. These are the complex sensations of the sublime. My works explore the sublime, departing from the traditional, heroic, masculine perspective, and instead employing a contemporary, meditative, and feminist perspective. They are dreamlike, fluid expressions inspired by an overwhelming sense of oneness with the micro fundamentals of our biology and the macro formations of our planet. I want to invite the eye to travel around and through the many layers of paint, to contemplate and imagine, and to question layers of meaning beyond rational comprehension.

Contact

Heather@HeatherStivisonArt.com
www.HeatherStivisonArt.com
@heatherstivison
@HeatherStivisonArt

Slideshow

1. Wider than the Sky, 2020, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 48” x 36”
   Finding the Eternal in the Everyday, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 58” x 101”
2. Landscape of a Dream, 2020, oil on canvas, 63” x 63”
3. Landscape of a Dream, 2020, oil on canvas, 63” x 63” (close up)
   Cosmic Dance, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 68” x 68” (further away)
4. Cosmic Dance, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 68” x 68”
5. Beneath the Surface, 2019, acrylic on canvas quadriptych, 36” x 130”
6. Beneath the Surface, 2019, acrylic on canvas quadriptych, 36” x 130” (left)
   Distant Voices Before Sleep, 2020, oil on canvas, 36” x 36” (right, cropped)
7. Distant Voices Before Sleep, 2020, oil on canvas, 36” x 36” (left)
   Voice of a Dream, 2020, oil on canvas, 36” x 36” (right)
8. Distant Voices Before Sleep, 2020, oil on canvas, 36” x 36”
9. Voice of a Dream, 2020, oil on canvas, 36” x 36”

More Information

• University Art Gallery MFA Thesis Exhibition
• MFA Thesis Online Exhibition