heather cappadonia
BIO
- Born and raised in Syracuse, NY, Heather earned both her Bachelor's in Art and her Master's degree in Art Education from Nazareth College of Rochester. She has over 25 years of teaching experience in numerous locations, such as the Rochester City School District, Rush-Henrietta Central Schools, Spencerport Central Schools, Brockport Central Schools, Cornerstone Christian Academy, and Christ Community School; as well as offering private instruction for many years. Now, retired from teaching, Heather is setting out to spend more time developing her own portfolio of acrylic paintings. Heather has been married to her wonderful husband Nicholas for over three decades; the couple has two amazing sons, Nicky and Joshua. Nicky, their oldest, is a musician that carries the diagnosis of Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS), a severe seizure disorder. Josh is a budding chef with a degree in Business from SUNY Fredonia. In addition to painting, Heather also runs; having completed 14 half marathons and six full marathons. Past, present, and future journeying in general, and marathon training in particular, informs much of her work.
MEDIA/ ART ELEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
- Heather enjoys canvas painting, as well as painting on wood and paper. She will often incorporate various collage materials, pastels, markers, water soluble pencils and crayons into her works. Heather prefers creating acrylic paintings but sometimes experiments with watercolor. She also likes to go back and forth between both representational and abstract projects, whatever suits her in the moment. (She will usually work on multiple projects at one time.) Regardless of the direction she takes on a given day, COLOR is the preeminent concern in her artmaking. She may play around with forms and lines, materials and subject matter; but the colors HAVE to be the PERFECT conveyance of her feelings or she gets VERY cranky!
INSPIRATIONS
- A genuine eclectic and an avowed hater when it comes to minimalism in art, Heather enjoys juxtaposing multiple interests into colorful, busy, acrylic paintings. Cityscapes, urban architectural features, puzzle and board game ephemera, gardens, trees, interiors, anatomical forms and vintage advertising/ signage all manage to find their way into her paintings. She carefully observes any sensory connections between the varying elements, and then mixes them with memories from her childhood car/bus trips; current running routes, song lyrics, personal writing, or book references to visually record her own personal "pep rally". It is her goal to then use the resulting paintings to encourage herself to keep going; whether the challenge at hand is working her son through a 20 minute long seizure, or working herself through a 20 mile marathon training run. It is Heather's hope that others are encouraged to keep moving forward through their own struggles as well.
Paint is Joy! Joy kills pain!
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