Artist's Statement

Frida Kahlo once said "Painting completed my life." I happen to share her sentiments exactly.

Creating and working with my hands has always been a part of my life. Painting is neccessary. I need it. Like I need air to breath. I can not live my life without difficulty, unless I can translate it onto a canvas with color, form and movement.

Since I can remember I have always found relief in creating. I believe it has been a second language for me. What I can not openly say, or perhaps feel, in everyday life, I was able to communicate through art. It was an escape. It was a way for me to be free. To be happy. To be myself. To just, "Be".

"What do you want to be when you grow up?". The question held a great deal of anxiety for me. It's not a question, it's an expectation. I interpretted it as, "Go become something that you haven't figured out yet." Until recently, I was unable to give an answer.

In retrospect, I see that the question is innocently flawed. I understand now, that it should have been a statement. "Be who you are and do what you were born to do."
I feel now that I can answer.
There is no question of what I wanted to be, or what I wanted to do. It is what I have always been, and what I have always done.

Now I begin.
I am an Artist.

_Heather Pasqualino Weirich