Heather Adamek
Lake Oswego, OR
Born in the Pacific Northwest, Heather Adamek is an abstract expressionist painter, seeking to tell those stories that words alone cannot fully express.
Message
Heather Adamek is a self-taught, abstract painter based in Portland, Oregon. She has spent her career experimenting with different mediums, working to translate our collective stories onto canvas. Her paintings have won awards, been juried into art exhibitions, exhibited in galleries, and are part of several private collections. Heather began painting to explore her relationship with perfectionism and why that felt like such a safe place to inhabit. This act of creating developed a sense of freedom that quickly spilled over into the rest of her life and she greatly appreciates the beauty and growth that comes from living outside her comfort zone.
Statement
At the center of my work is a desire to use color and shape to call us back to the places within where we feel the most free, the most vulnerable, and the most ourselves. My childhood was spent exploring the wilds of the Pacific Northwest Coast and the lush, quiet undergrowth of the Cascade Mountains. Time there allowed me to feel peaceful and understood, like I was a known part of something magical and unbelievably vast. Even still, when surrounded by the ocean’s relentless crashing waves and brackish scent or the rushing waters of a glacial stream, my spirit is calmed. These landscapes are chaotic and messy and in every way perfect and beautiful.
I paint what these experiences leave within me. Often, I begin with bold colors and expressive mark making, yet at other times I feel a pull toward something more earthy and contemplative. Working intuitively, I add layers of oil, charcoal, pastels and any other media that I find helps me to tell those stories that words alone cannot fully express.