Minneapolis, MN
BELOW ZERO, CLEAR SKIES
Morning hovers
Hoarfrost covers
Frozen Mist
Winter’s Tryst
Sun rays warm
After the storm
Frigid air
Coats to wear
Months of cold
Beautiful, Bold
ABOUT THE POET
Heather Wright, working also under the tag ART4Mstudio, has lived and practiced primarily in Minnesota, with a brief time in Wisconsin. She/They were clearly an artist from a young age and eventually earned a BFA from the University of MN-Duluth in Studio Arts with an Art History minor. During her undergraduate years, Heather was very active in The School of Fine Arts operations. Working as a peer advisor, museum intern, volunteering for Music Department faculty, and being appointed or volunteering
for various panels and boards in collaboration with faculty, she was well engaged with her university community. Her primary areas of work at that time were clay, drawing, and fiberart.
Returning to her origins on Minnesota’s Iron Range, Heather raised a family and was an active volunteer in several capacities while working as a floral designer, legal assistant, and several short-term office positions as needed during her spouse’s mining industry layoff periods. She continued to explore fiberarts with weaving, knitting, spinning, and sculpture, exhibiting in small venues, offices, and demonstrating practices in public event settings and schools. Heather relocated to Southern Minnesota in 2014 eventually opening a floral studio. Heather began doing elaborate chalk murals in her
studio and returned to ink drawing. Moving the flower shop to Rochester MN was a new era of artistic exploration. Fiberarts activity waned and illustration and drawing became her focus. She began exhibiting in MN, WI, and OH, later moving aggressively into collage and mixed media. Her first solo show was held in Rochester MN, with another in Rochester, and one in Ely MN a few years later. The Northern Lakes Arts Association in Ely accepted Heather into a juried group show gathering artist’s from around the US
with ties to Northern MN. This was a fundraiser project benefiting the Rainy River Watershed region in MN. Each artist was assigned two indigenous plants to work with which was later turned into a deck of cards for sale, as well as a public exhibition of the images. Heather will always remember the thrill of being given her muse, the Pitcher Plant, and the Minnesota State Flower, the Lady Slipper. Heather’s inspirations have consistently been science and nature, the divine feminine, and tension within the ebb
and flow of the Earth. She is also an enthusiast of urban art and punk rock, science fiction and mid century/atomic era images, and the Cold War era. Art History studies gave Heather a love for the Dutch Masters, the Fauves, and the Orphists, as well as Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.
Heather continued many creative ventures centered around Rochester and the Mayo Clinic community. She became a member of the Board of Directors at the Rochester Art Center as Accessibility Chairperson, coincidentally during her diagnoses of some chronic conditions. She now creates with the added viewpoint of a person working with disabilities. She recently relocated to Minneapolis (October 2025) for a floral design management position, leaving a loved job with the arts community at a Rochester
gallery and theater. Her new studio is brimming with collage work and illustration ideas.
She has exhibited in a downtown St Paul group show (2026) with plans for a 2027 group show in Minneapolis. Her collage work was published Internationally in 2025 and 2026, with the potential for future international work. Heather lives with two floofy cats, a lot of paper clippings and weird plant sketches, and is enjoying watching her three adult daughters and three grandchildren thrive.
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