With lanterns, torches, halos, hell-fire, sunsets and television sets, Heather Watts brings color and character to the grainy memory of our collective history. Unified by threads of humor, faith and fatalism, her work explores the bittersweet nature of life. Innocence, hope & truth square off against knowledge, despair and illusion through the pageantry of anthropomorphic villains and anti-heroes, all rendered with an eye to what they reveal about the realities of our own world.
Watts is self-taught in the arts, but holds a Bachelors Degree in Asian Area Studies from the University of British Columbia. A bookish fascination with history, politics, art, science and religion exerts subtle influence in her art.
Since Watts began painting full-time in 2003, her work has surfaced in galleries from California to Florida, including M Modern Gallery in Palm Springs and Las Vegas, The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco, Copro Nason in Santa Monica. DvA Gallery in Chicago, and Roq la Rue in Seattle. Her first solo show, entitled The End is Near debuted at M Modern Gallery, Las Vegas, in May of 2007; all pieces sold.
