Iris

Heather Kiser is a self-taught painter and mixed media artist who currently lives in

Charlottesville, Virginia with her husband and three young children. A Southern California native, she moved to Charlottesville for graduate school and received her PhD in English Literature from the University of Virginia in 2015. Heather’s life-long enthusiasm for art was deepened while working on her dissertation, which explores the idea of the woman artist in Victorian poetry and in the work of early women photographers. A latent desire to create art eventually culminated when Heather decided to leave academia following the birth of her first daughter. At a crossroads personally and professionally, Heather realized that she most aspired to become an artist herself rather than to write about the work of others.

Today, Heather creates rich, multi-layered pieces, drawing inspiration from her academic background, her role as a mother, her surroundings, and her faith. Her work draws attention to the emotional resonance of her subjects through her emphasis on texture and use of impressionistic color and mark-making. Watercolor and acrylic painting form the foundation of her practice, but she also enjoys reimagining traditional art processes digitally and combining different materials like ink, embroidery, gilding, and pressed florals with paint in unexpected ways. Heather’s highest goal is for viewers of her art to more clearly see the complex beauty inherent in the everyday world, and in so doing, to experience hope and joy.