About
Biography
Heather Clements
Creating art from her inner-most weirdo
Heather Clements has always used art as a way of understanding herself, the world around her, and the complicated relationship between the two. From childhood onward, creating has been a means of processing, exploring, healing, and connecting. Her work is rooted in the belief that art can change us—and that sometimes the things we make for ourselves are the very things that allow us to connect most deeply with one another.
Growing up in Northern Virginia’s D.C. metro area, Heather never seriously considered doing anything other than becoming an artist. She graduated cum laude in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. After graduation, she moved to Panama City, Florida, where, within months, she found herself the owner of Gallery Above, an art gallery and cultural venue that quickly became a gathering place for the area’s creative subculture. The space hosted monthly exhibitions, weekly swing dances and film nights, and countless performances by local and touring musicians. After two years, Heather spent a short time working at the local arts museum before realizing she needed to devote herself fully to making art.
For more than 16 years, Heather has worked as a professional artist and art instructor. Her work has consistently explored the human relationship with nature, often bringing together playful abstraction and realistic portraiture. She works across a wide range of media, including drawing, oil painting, watercolor, and cut-paper. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States, with several solo exhibitions and numerous awards, including multiple Best in Show honors. She has also created murals throughout Northwest Florida and as far north as New York City.
Then, in 2018, the natural world that had long been Heather’s greatest source of inspiration was devastated.
Hurricane Michael formed with astonishing speed and intensified into a Category 5 storm before striking the Florida Panhandle. It destroyed Heather’s home and left her displaced for nearly three years, moving through temporary living situations that were often less than ideal. But the damage went far beyond her own four walls. Across the region, the hurricane destroyed an estimated 75–90% of the trees and 95% of the tree canopy—the forests and landscape that had been such an important part of Heather’s life and artistic inspiration.
The hurricane was followed by a cascade of personal losses and traumatic challenges. Heather stopped making art altogether. For an artist who had spent her entire life creating, the silence lasted a year. Heather decided she needed to prioritize her art for her mental health so she could be stronger for her loved ones.
Heather booked a tiny off-grid treehouse in the mountains of North Georgia and disappeared into the woods for a week. She went with no plan beyond being alone, surrounded by nature, and trying to heal. She expected she might spend the entire week crying. Instead, she hiked every morning and made art until sunset. She created work about loss—work that somehow began to transform the loss itself. What happened next surprised her: the experiment worked. That week became a turning point, pulling her out of the depths of her depression and reminding her of something she had known instinctively since childhood: making things can be a form of survival.
In 2023, Heather relocated to Asheville, North Carolina, drawn by the mountains, endless forest trails, and thriving arts community. She hoped the city might offer a haven in a changing climate. Then Hurricane Helene arrived. This time, her home was spared, but the studio/gallery and teaching space she belonged to in Asheville’s River Arts District was destroyed. Once again, the landscape and community around her were transformed by disaster. And once again, Heather turned toward the things that have always helped her rebuild: nature, art, and the people who make up her creative community. That process of rebuilding has become part of her work.
Heather’s recent practice has become increasingly interactive, playful, and unconventional. Her artist books, Pull Me Apart, Volumes 1 and 2, invite readers to physically manipulate the work through pull tabs, spinning wheels, and other movable elements. Her interactive murals similarly ask viewers to become participants, using giant wooden wheels to reveal hidden images within the compositions. Her surreal work offers an invitation to explore themes of mortality, memento mori, nature, and interconnection, often inviting viewers to look at difficult truths with curiosity, playfulness, and a sense of wonder.
Heather is giving herself permission to create art from her innermost weirdo—to follow her curiosity wherever it leads and make work that is strange, playful, tactile, and sometimes downright bizarre. The more honestly she follows her own instincts, the more she finds that people recognize something of themselves in what she creates. That shared recognition is what keeps Heather making. She is fascinated by the invisible threads that connect us—to one another, to the natural world, and to the experiences that shape who we become. Her work invites people to slow down, look closer, touch, play, and participate. For Heather, art is not simply something to be observed; it is a way of connecting, healing, and reminding ourselves that we are all part of something much bigger than ourselves.
Heather's art can be found at the Kevin Andrew Studio and Gallery in Phil Mechanic Studios, 109 Roberts St (River Arts District) Asheville, NC, USA.
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“Heather continues to reimagine what art can be. She has expanded into interactive creations (like her pull-tab book titled 'Pull Me Apart' and playful murals with spinning wooden wheels) where viewers become participants and collaborators in the unfolding. Her palette often leans into vibrant purples and deep blues, dreamlike tones that echo both depth and delight. Heather's recent work invites others into the act of wonder. Her art has become a space to pause, play, and feel. Less about instruction, more about invitation. Because for Heather, art is never about control. It's about presence. A gentle reminder that healing is not a finish line; it's a practice. A way to begin again."
--- The Garden
"Heather is one of those artists who doesn't just make art — she makes meaning. Her work is layered in every sense of the word. Using watercolor, hand-cut paper, and a bit of engineering magic, she creates interactive pieces that move, spin, open, unfold — and honestly, feel like tiny portals into another world. Her pieces don’t just hang on walls. They invite you in. Her gorgeous, emotional, interactive coffee table book Pull Me Apart explores themes of emotional unraveling and renewal in a truly stunning, hands-on way."
--- Discover Asheville
“Interactive artist Heather Clements transforms grief into beauty, using art as a tool for healing and connection. From breathtaking murals to her book 'Pull Me Apart',' she invites others into her world- one deeply rooted in nature and creativity."
--- Harmony Talk
Résumé
Education
2007 Maryland Institute College of Art [MICA], Baltimore, MD, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Cum Laude, Painting
2003 Corcoran School of Art, Portfolio Development Program, Washington, D.C.
2002 Virginia Governor’s School, one month residential program, Visual Arts, Richmond, VA
Solo Exhibitions
2021 Becoming Nature Again- Heather Clements Art Show, Taproom, Panama City, FL
2018 We Are Nature: Art by Heather Clements, Panama City Center for the Arts Main Gallery, FL
2015 Human Nature: Heather Clements, Gulf Coast State College Amelia Center Main Gallery, Panama City, FL
2013 Cut It Out: Cut Paper Art by Heather Clements, Bay County Public Library, Panama City, FL
2012 I Cut Paper: Art by Heather Clements, Studio b., Alys Beach, FL
2010 Heather Clements –A Selection of Works: Past, Present, but not Future, Gulf Coast Community College, Panama City, FL
2008 Octopus’s Garden: Art by Heather Clements, Tupelo Theater, Wewahitchka, FL
2007 I Draw People - The Art of Heather Clements, Gallery Above, Panama City, FL
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Standing Strong, Bender Gallery, Asheville, NC
2024 Celebrate the Blues, Re.Imagine Gallery, Fairview, NC
2024 Raising Spirits and Hope, ArtPlay Gallery, Asheville, NC
2023 Annual Guild of American Papercutters Exhibit, Panama City Center for the Arts, FL
2019 Winter Exhibit, Foster Gallery, Santa Rosa Beach, FL and Mirimar Beach, FL
2017 Grand Opening Exhibition, Fringe Gallery, Panama City, FL
2016 Maker's Mark: A Sketchbook Exhibit (3-woman show), Mosey's, Panama City, FL
2012/14/15/16 Top of the Class, Juried Exhibition, Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County, FL
2015 A Step Into Spring, Juried Exhibition, Las Laguna Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2015 Musae, Juried Exhibition, Pensacola, FL
2014 A Cut Above, Highfield Hall and Garden, Falmouth, MA
2014 Nature Inspired, Guild of American Papercutters National Museum, Somerset, PA
2012/13 Northstar Annual Art Show, Panama City, FL
2012 Dia de los Muertos, ChimMaya Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Heather Heather Heather (3-woman show), CityArts Cooperative, Panama City, FL
2011 BOLD, A&M Theater, Panama City, FL
2009 Opening Exhibition, Studio B, Alys Beach, FL
2007/08 Darkness, Gallery Above, Panama City, FL
2007 Commencement Exhibition, Fox Gallery, MICA, Baltimore, MD
2004 Selections from the Painting Department, Brown 3 Gallery, MICA, Baltimore, MD
2002/03 Something Hot, Gallery 222, Leesburg, VA
Selected Awards
2022 Best of Show 59th Bay Annual, Panama City Center for the Arts, FL
2017 + 2016 Best of Show, 53rd + 54th Bay Annual, Panama City Center for the Arts, FL
2017 + 2016 1st Place, Public Eye Soar International Projection Art Festival, Panama City, FL
2017 Best of Show, 58th Annual Beaux Arts Exhibition, Fort Walton Beach, FL
2016 1st Place, and People's Choice Award, Northwest Florida Art Battle
2015 + 2014 2nd Place, Public Eye Soar, Panama City, FL
2015 + 2014 + 2012 Merit Award, Top of the Class Juried Exhibit, Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County, FL
2014 1st Place, Figure It Juried Exhibit, Arts and Design Society of Fort Walton Beach, FL
2003-2007 Dean’s List, MICA, Baltimore, MD
2003-2007 Presidential Scholarship, MICA, Baltimore, MD
2003 1st Place, Excellence in the Arts, Loudoun Arts Council, Loudoun County, VA
1999 1st Place in Art, Terry and Sherry Malone Foundation, Loudoun County, VA
Selected Press
2025 “Art as Therapy: Heather Clements’ Story” HarmonyTALK podcast
2024 “Heather Clements on Reclaiming Creativity in the Wake of Storms” On the Blue Ridge podcast
2021 "Clements to Debut New Watercolor Series at Taproom," Panama City News Herald
2018 "Clements' Work Declares 'We Are Nature," Panama City News Herald
2016 "Artist Heather Clements," Panama City Living Magazine
2015 "Artist's Touch: Embracing a Natural Humanity," PanamaCity.com print and online
2014 "Artist Interview," www.CLAWCLAW.com
2013 "Cut It Out: Artist's work connects with man, nature," PanamaCity.com print and online
2013 "The Business Side of Papercutting," First Cut Newsletter
2013 "Portrait of the people artist, Heather Clements," Panama City Life Magazine
2012 "Artist Opens Exhibit of Paper Cut Work," Walton Sun
2011 "A Cut Above The Rest: Artist Rocks Paper, Scissors," News Herald
2011 “Paper Garden Blooms at VAC,” Bay County Bullet
2010 Featured Artist, Beachcomber
2008 “Shaking Up the PC Arts Scene,” Cover Story, 5-page article, Coastal Homes and Lifestyles Magazine
2008 "Panama City Artist Brings Show to Tupelo Theater," (Cover Story) Gulf County Breeze
2008 Featured Artist (February- April,) Bay Arts Magazine (Cover and article)
2008 Artist of the month (January), EmeraldCoast.com
2007-2013 Cover Artist, Panama City Visitors Map
2007 Featured Artist (December,) Coastal Style MagazineSelected
Affiliations
2025 -present Board of Directors, River Arts District Association, Asheville, NC
2023 -present Member, River Arts District Association, Asheville, NC
2020 - present Board of Directors, Public Eye Soar Art Projection Festival, Panama City, FL
2023 - 2024 Featured Artist, 310 Art, Asheville, NC
2010 - 2023 Member, CityArts Cooperative [PR + Marketing Manager, Gallery Manager, Director Recruitment]
2018 - 2021 Board of Directors, Bay Arts Alliance
2012 - 2024 Member, Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County
2012 - present Member, Guild of American Papercutters, (Exhibitions committee 2021-2024)
Published Works
2026 "Pull Me Apart Volume 2" published by Poposition Press, coming Fall 2026
2024 "Pull Me Apart: Interactive Sketchbook by Heather Clements" published by Poposition Press
2018 "We Are Nature: Art by Heather Clements" self-published
2012 "Cut Paper by Heather Clements" self-published
Experience
Full Time Professional Artist 2010 - present:
Fine art, commissioned art, murals
Art Instructor 2007 - present:
See current offering of classes and workshops
310 Art, Asheville, NC 2023-present
All Together Art, Asheville, NC 2024-present
CityArts Cooperative, Panama City, FL 2010-2023
Arts and Design Society, Fort Walton Beach, FL 2014-2023
Panama City Center for the Arts, FL 2015-2023
Gulf Coast State College, Panama City, FL 2015-2023
Bayou Arts Center, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 2016-2023
Studio b., Alys Beach, FL 2009-2012
Visual Arts Center, Panama City, FL 2009-2010
Michaels, Panama City, FL 2007
Visual Arts Center of Northwest Florida, Panama City, FL 2009 - 2010:
Exhibitions Manager and Graphic Designer
Gallery Above, Panama City, FL 2007 - 2009:
[The Gallery Above was a contemporary art gallery and venue space, serving as an arts hub for the sub-culture of the area]
Owner/Sole-operator: monthly exhibit curation, graphic design, marketing, event organization, sales, etc.