Dawn Heid

It’s Up To You
plaster and found object on board
12 x 12 in.

Dawn is an architect and she has been painting most of her life. Architectural practice has given her paintings structure and process and the square format and orthogonal compositional organization are an obvious reflection of her architectural training. More importantly, her work explores the object within a field, its interaction with the literal and phenomenal space of the work, and is enriched by the three dimensional quality of architecture.

Painting for Dawn is process driven. The composition, color, materials and proportion of her pieces are limited in order to focus on space making within the picture plane. Found materials often appear to be structured objects or enclosures, they are imbedded in the plaster, integral with the picture plane, and sometimes appear to be disintegrating. The use of plaster, cold wax, soot and found materials adds dimension and structure to her art, resulting in a thick, flat, dense surface, creating a dialog about the tension between the built and natural environments.

© Dawn Heid