Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Friedli.
Hi Heather, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I create art about the natural world while drawing on my family’s native Odawa, Mexican and American heritages. I enjoy the beautiful landscapes of Minnesota and other landscapes around me including the Appalachian trail of which I thru-hiked in 2010. Best known for my contemporary impressionist oil paintings and snow sculpture, drawing on my family heritage and the land in which I live. Bold strokes and brilliant colors light up scenes of cloudscapes, water, and native flora and fauna. Many pieces are created in the context of my wilderness adventures; by directly creating large scale public snow sculptures or by bringing my paints outdoors to create work that shares with the viewer the experience of immersion in the landscape. Within these kinesthetic and contextual works, I explore the spiritual world through the lens of culture and lived experience of place. My work is creative, soulful, bold, and powerful.
I’ve lived a long life in many places, and in those places I’ve always created art from the land- be it drawing inspiration from the colors, weaving grass into mats, pinching pots from clay dug from the ground or finding different rocks to paint. I’ve always drawn inspiration from my heritage. Living half my childhood in Los Angeles I was inspired by my Sonoran Mexican heritage; living the other half in Michigan inspired by my Indigenous Odawa heritage by spending time with my elders on our tribal lands.
I’m motivated to create because of a need and longing in my soul. I attempt to synthesize my experience of the natural world for the viewer, the beauty and power of nature. I enjoy going into the physical landscape and experiencing it first hand. I ask “What is important about this land? What did people do that they loved here? What are the plants and animals that live in this space?” I constantly ask “What does my heritage mean to me, what does it mean about the landscape around me and my place in this land?” I bring the power of this into the art of landscape painting. This is the land of my people. I travel and am a part of this land, honoring the ancestors and existing through that lens.
I come from a long line of painters. My great-grandfather John E. Duvernay was a Native American pictorial scene painter for the WPA back in the 1930s. Many of his works are still held at the tribal offices of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians in Harbor Springs, MI. I’m also inspired by the work of my grandfather Jake Friedli who was a painter in Los Angeles creating graphic signs; plus my many creative family members- mom, aunts, cousins, brothers and my sister. I have this incredibly long lineage of artists in my family of which I am proud, and draw on for inspiration.
Back in college people would tell me the colors I used were too bright. I have worked a long time to arrive at what my color style is today. There is a part of me that is bright- I love bright colors and clothing and color patterns, and I love bright paintings! And that’s ok! I’ve come to accept that part of me, as well as honing in and creating a palette that is unique to myself as well as being beautiful. I love to spread the beauty of how I perceive the world with others, and that’s why I mix colors the way I do. I love the act of mixing, because mixing oil paint is like mixing butter. So in the morning when I’m mixing my palettes I look at the landscape and interpret how I feel about it through my eyes and actions into those colors.
I love the texture of paint; I enjoy working sculpturally with it. Using thick impasto brushstrokes and thinking about the rhythm and movement of the paint on canvas is part of what inspires me. I’m kinesthetic- I’m a mover and hiker, I’ve always been an outdoors woman. By painting in large format I’m able to create and move with my whole body.
I enjoy working in large formats. It’s a kinesthetic experience- full body painting and snow sculpture. I love to move back and forth in a dance with canvas and snow. I really like large format works because you get incredibly immersed in it and the painting or sculpture becomes a dominant part of the space you are in.
I’ve been working as a professional snow sculptor for 14 years, winning both the State Snow Sculpting Championship in 2016, and the National Snow Sculpting Championship in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in 2019 on Team Dino Fight. Much of my snow art depicts subjects in sweeping motion because of the nature of this kinesthetic art involving my whole body during its creation. Not only does snow sculpting have many physical demands due to the medium, the physical process of sculpting snow becomes in essence performance art interacting with your audience and teammates. Through this process, I not only channel my current environment, but also generations of my family’s history.
Processing our past and present through art is a way of healing generational traumas. In the case of my family’s indigenous experience, I hope my art can lead to growth and understanding to those who view it. In 2020, I created a snow sculpture with my team of a jingle dress dancer which is a symbol of healing for many in North American Indigenous culture. In 2022 we created a work honoring the plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. By creating things from our culture, we’re able to bring that healing and continue to say we are still here. The only way you’re going to heal is to bring people together and bring the truth to light. You can only vanquish the darkness with sunshine. It’s also a great way to have a big public sculpture that is both ephemeral and meaningful to the community.
The act of conscious community building is what made me seriously pursue opening my own art gallery in the midst of the pandemic. During a period of time in 2021, I lovingly refer to as my “spring crazies”. I became hyper-focused and obsessed with plants, ultimately accruing over 100 different varieties both indoors and out within that time period. While compulsively collecting, I kept asking myself “What’s the deal with these plants? What was going on? Why am I doing this?!” Even though my actions were my own, I knew the answer was bigger than myself. Whenever I would think about and interact with my plants, the word “Community” and the idea of a healthy ecosystem kept popping into my head. I kept asking myself “How do I foster Community during a period of social unrest? How can I combat the loneliness the pandemic has brought to our community during this time?” One night in the middle of the night, I woke up and had an answer. I had to create a gallery space for artists as well as the community to organically interact with one another. A place for artists to not only display and sell their works, but a place to hold classes and community events. I knew in my heart we can’t be isolationists, we’re not going to survive being lone rogue cowboys out here, the only way forward is to work together. AS A COMMUNITY.
The gallery’s motto is “By an Artist, for Artists and our Community.” Part of Friedli Gallery’s unique structure is to bring back the promise of a gallery’s responsibility to actually get out there and sell the artists’ work. Many galleries these days operate in a “Pay to Play” model, laying the onus on the Artist to do the work of selling their art, (sometimes even hosting their OWN art opening, WHAT?!) and not the gallery. Because of this, Friedli Gallery is a commission-based gallery with exhibitions and not a vanity boutique charging for wall space. This is a great benefit to artists and for fostering a great collection of shows and exhibitions that push the boundaries of art and creativity.
Friedli Gallery Opened October 2021 to great acclaim and excitement of those in the community. We’ve hosted many wildly successful shows including our Community Showcase, “We Are Still Here” Indigenous Art Show, and the Friedli Gallery “Book Arts Exhibition”. These events have had packed wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder openings and great press, really showing how important arts and culture are to our community here in the Twin Cities.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’ve been very fortunate to be raised and supported by a strong loving family of moms and aunties. The struggles and trauma I incurred in my early childhood due to unstable living conditions have been made much more bearable by the fact that I was always loved by my family. They continue to help me grow and foster a healthy life for myself, my work as an artist, and my role as a mother and wife in our community. And to them, I am forever thankful.
I’ve had very good times, and very bad times. There was even a long moment of time in my mid 20’s I couldn’t make art at all. This was a time of great mental struggle as I searched for my meaning and purpose in life. I spent most of those years in the woods across the country, doing intense work on my past traumas through my spiritual connection with nature in loving camp communities. I call them “my dark years”, but there was also much joy in that struggle, wandering the great northern forests, guiding trips and teaching kids science, survival skills and history. But by 2010, culminating with my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, I finally found the healing I was looking for around mile 1,500 somewhere between Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. As I hiked those mountains I could see landscape paintings forming in the distance around me. I could smell oil paint, feel that buttery oil paint under a boar bristle brush in hand with my eyes, heart and mind. The land was alive, and so was I in the land! The land and ancestor spirits were calling my name. At that moment I knew as soon as I got back into “the real world” I needed to be an oil painter. So I did. And it only took hiking 2178 miles from Georgia to Maine!
Today I tackle every bump in the road like every day on the Appalachian Trail. The greatest life lesson that was given to me on the AT was the motto “One step at a time, One foot in front of the other” until you reach your goals. Wake up, get going, every day is a fresh start to make change. Baby steps are all you need as long as you keep heading in the right direction.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
On a good work day, I wake up and say “Hi!” to the birds outside, wish the plants and animals a good day, kiss my kids & husband. Gratitude, growth, care, love, giving, all before being in the Gallery & Studio creating. Community, Nature and Art in daily ritual. I listen and paint to Heather Cox Richardson’s talks on the history of the American Reconstruction Period after the Civil War and what it has to do with everything going on today. I dance to music. I paint. Everything comes out of my paint brush. Every little thing is going into my work. The morning fuels the love and beauty part. My heart is thinking about community, politics, BLM, protesting in the streets calling for change, listening to the speakers about why the time for change is NOW. It all goes into my work and it’s all important. My work has bright and cheerful colors but contemplative and meditative all at once. I then come home, see our kids off the bus. Kids from around the neighborhood come running in and out, up and down, our house is a community center where neighbors meet to talk, play, have fun and be accepted for who they are. Constantly building community with one another, connecting to make a better world.
My personal belief system is nature based drawing on my native heritage and experiences being in the woods. I thrive best in systems which honor these things. I’m a verbal processor, and the Appalachian Trail is full of community- there is always a group of people hiking around you all the way to Maine. A lot of what I did while I was living in the woods was teaching about ecological communities and how they relate to humans and how we impact and live within these communities. Animals live in community with each other and help each other out. Trees talk through their roots and communicate how they are feeling. There is also this unspoken part of being in nature where you are one with this whole ecosystem. My home and gallery is filled with houseplants, creating ecological communities within our indoor spaces. Our house is a community center with our neighbors. The gallery is a community center that brings the whole community together.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m always dreaming up plans, but mostly on the fly as things change. I’m always reacting to and adjusting for the things around me, as it’s all part of being flexible and survival mechanism in this everchanging world. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other.
Currently, my biggest plan is to keep going! I have many great shows coming up at the gallery. I continue to create beautiful paintings and snow sculptures and exhibit them! I look forward to a super-secret surprise project coming out this November!! Wish I could say something more, but I can’t yet, just know it’s going to be HUGE!
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.friedliartsgallery.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/friedliarts
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/friedliarts
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgqVtsPHPpSCxKb3IME7O9A
- Other: https://linktr.ee/Friedliarts
