Artist's Statement

We come to understand each other through the stories we tell. My artwork tells the stories of our connections, experiences, and expectations. As an object maker, I work primarily with photography (digital and analog), books, and textiles; I construct in other media as needed to tell these personal and societal narratives. The work talks about my experience and moves beyond my life to create a bond with those who engage with it. Through everyday events and encounters, our histories are created. It is through sharing with each other that we make our pasts public, creating a collective future.

The series Waiting is based on the ubiquitous story, told over and again, to young girls and women about the wedding day. The tale is commonly a surreal story of perfection. Her day planned and executed to exacting standards-an exquisite experience tied up in beautiful silk ribbons and bows, as long as the young girl child waits for the right time, and the right man (and food, dress, and flowers).

The image created for this piece shows the bride, ready but waiting, in an ambiguous landscape. Her existence is defined, interpretable only by the clothing she wears and the flowers she carries. She is never allowed, or perhaps never chooses (but, of course, it is a combination of the two), to escape the confines of the image's edge. She is thus defined, reduced even, to the story of her wedding day.

I find the stories we are told about our adulthood while children and adolescents fascinating. Having experienced my life as female, gendered as a girl and woman, my work explores the stories given to girls as they grow. When I begin working on a series I usually start by writing prose poems-retelling the tales, perhaps with a few extra twists and turns. These written works begin to develop into mental imagery that I then recreate in front of the camera. The work is usually done in a series, allowing me to have not only a still image, but a succession of images that give me the chance to explore time, sequence, and most especially the experience of repetition. As I work I continue to write, read, and explore while the images develop and become further nuanced into an exploration of these stories beyond my personal experience. Most influential to my work have been critical and creative writings by Helen Cixous and Joanna Frueh, among others.

As I work the images, writing, reading, and experiences intertwine, threading into and through each other-weaving a cloth that will, I hope, allow those who view the work to feel the uncanny. A touch of knowing, a touch of the unusual, and perhaps a little touch of their own.

HEATHER D. s. ANDERSON is a candidate for an MFA in the department of art and design at the University of Idaho. She also teaches within the College of Art and Architecture at the university. A native of Portland, Oregon, she received her BA in architecture from Portland State University Honors College and her BFA at the University of Nevada, Rent) with a minor in Women's Studies. Heather works primarily in digital photography, printing her work on both conventional papers and alternative supports such as textiles.

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