Collage and print-making artist in MacGregor, Manitoba
Heather is a rural-Manitoba based visual artist and educator. Her prints and collages reflect wonder at the natural history of Manitoba, and explore the context of her ancestral story. These works seek to find perspective for our place in geological time and human history.
Before devoting most of her time to her own practice in 2016, Heather Martens Rempel taught junior high and high school art for over 18 years. While enjoying creating and teaching in many mediums, Heather has found mono-printing with a gel-plate an endless source of inspiration for a variety of projects in collage and book making. She loves to spread the joy of this medium with students of all ages and abilities through community workshops and the Artists in Schools program. Her connection with the Manitoba Arts Council allows her to apply for funding to work in schools and community art centers.
Heather takes great inspiration as an artist/educator in the power to open others’ eyes to the visual beauty and utility of found objects in nature and the built environment. As well as print-making, she also teaches drawing in person and on-line. Heather’s artwork has been shown in many galleries in Manitoba as a solo show and in group shows.
Formative Years
Like most children, Heather had a strong desire to leave her mark. Her efforts were marked mostly by discouragement and shame. Perhaps her choice of the family piano was not the best choice of media for carving. Attempts to express her distrust of clowns, by colouring outside of the lines, were not well received either. Despite receiving “D” from the “critic”, this piece represented her first public showing. Not to be deterred she continued to draw and paint.
Her formal art education began two years later with visits to the Prado in Spain, the Sistine Chapel in Rome and the Parthenon in Athens. Gazing up at Michelangelo’s David with seven year old eyes was a distinctly formative experience in her development as an artist.
