Heather Harris

I paint abstract landscapes using earth pigments found in southern Louisiana. My work explores the parallels between humanity and nature, women and the earth, and our past and present relationships to the land.

My recent work focuses on the throughlines between Louisiana’s history of injustice and its current environmental and human crises. My paintings explore the range of our experiences in relation to a singular but layered place, highlighting the history that has been baked into the land, and articulating the tension between natural beauty and human darkness.

I believe the earth has a long memory and that we do not - intentionally or otherwise. I view my roles as an artist, historian, and citi-zen of a capitalist republic as deeply intertwined and linked to the same core responsibilities: interrogate imbalances, reckon with hard histories, and imagine a future of natural equilibrium.

- Heather Harris, 2021