Giant Dahlia Painting

“So when you are alert and contemplate a flower, crystal, or bird without naming it mentally, it becomes a window for you into the formless. There is an inner opening, however slight, into the realm of spirit…We are a species that has lost its way. Everything natural, every flower or tree, and every animal have important lessons to teach us if we would only stop, look, and listen…What could be more heavy and more impenetrable than a rock, the densest of all forms? And yet some rocks undergo a change in their molecular structure, turn into crystals, and so become transparent to the light. Some carbons, under inconceivable heat and pressure, turn into diamonds, and some heavy minerals into other precious stones…Can human beings lose the density of their conditioned mind structures and become like crystals or precious stones, so to speak, transparent to the light of consciousness?” --Eckhart Tolle "Hedden communicates the language of light. She believes that light is the luminous self made manifest in this world. Zooming in close to a dense cluster of glittering refraction, or delicate transparency and shadow, Hedden renders these microcosms on large canvases with her muscular brush strokes. Her pieces are actual portraits of a particular mineral or flower at a precise moment in time." As an artist, I look for the unseen patterns and hidden narratives that reveal the magnificence in all things. Robert Henri said, "Paint the spirit of the bird rather than its feathers." There is a still point in every moment and to capture this essential luminescence is to acknowledge the ancient wisdom in all things. I make use of archetypes from the cultural and mystical history that connects all humans and all life forms. Joseph Campbell said that artists are the shamans of our time. I believe that we have the ability as well as the obligation to find and share truth and offer direction to the greater community. It is with this inspiration that I delve into the riches of the collective unconscious and the imagery and symbolism of my dreams to draw out something bigger than myself to share with the world. I was born and raised in Utah's wild red desert, but have had the great fortune to call many amazing places around the world my home. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, I am as comfortable painting large oils as I am illustrating children's books.