"My sculptural practice explores the complex relationships between memory, place, and the body, interwoven aspects of experience that form a framework for understanding ourselves, our histories, and the narratives we create. When fire destroyed my family home, it consumed not only the physical container of familial history and memories but also a fundamental center of connection and belonging. This loss became a catalyst for examining how we form foundational associations with places of home, and how displacement leaves us navigating the realm of memory itself, a space that is mutable, fragmentary, and unreliable.Working in mixed media, I incorporate metal, resin, wood, clay, plaster, and found objects alongside deeply personal materials, including ash and remnants salvaged from the house fire. Impermanent and fragile elements, glass, fabric, and thread, reference both the fleeting nature of our states of being and memory's inherent vulnerability.Through this practice, I investigate how embodied experiences shape our remembering and the stories we construct around these memories. The work examines our interconnectedness with place and confronts the trauma of loss and displacement, revealing how we reconstruct meaning when the foundations of home are swept away." Heidi MortensenEducation2024 MFA, Sculpture Dimensional Studies, School of Art & Design, Alfred University, NY1993 BFA, Sculpture, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, HIExtended Education2021 Barcelona Academy of Art, Barcelona, SpainAtelier figure-sculpting course2021 Athens Sculpture Atelier, Athens, Greece, Atelier figure-sculpting course, Robert BodemExhibitions2025 Solo Exhibition, Holding Memory, Urban Glass, Brooklyn, NY (forthcoming)2025 With Bated Breath, Waveland Gallery, Waveland, MS (forthcoming)2025 Minis, New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, New Orleans, LA2024 Solo Exhibition, I hold a thread, tied to a memory, of a home lost, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY2023 15th Annual NUDE Exhibit, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH2023 About Home, Ely Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT2023 Rising, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY2023 Different Wavelengths, Seneca Street Gallery, Hornell, NY2021 Emergence, Pacific Northwest Sculptors, onlineJuror: Richard Speer, Art Critic & Curator2021 Women Artists Making Their Mark, O?Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CAJurors: Donna Seager and Suzanne Gray, Seager Gray Gallery2021 Slice: A Juried Cross-Section of Regional Art, Pence Gallery, Davis, CA.Juror: Faith J. McKinnie, Independent Curator2021 Artworks Northwest Biennial Exhibit, Umpqua Valley Arts Association, Roseburg, ORJuror: Grace Kook-Anderson, Curator, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR2021 Unprecedented, Healdsburg Center for the Arts, Healdsburg, CAAwards and Residencies2025 National Sculpture Society Charlotte Geffken Award2024 Cité Internationale des Arts Residency Fellowship, Paris, France2024 Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship, nominee2024 International Sculpture Center Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, nominee2024 Fulbright research grant, semi-finalist2023 Art Makers Apprentice Award, School of Art & Design, Alfred University, NY2022 Full tuition grant, School of Art & Design, Alfred University, NY2021 First Place, Pence Gallery Award for Slice:A Juried Cross-Section of Regional Art2021 The Sheridan Prize for Art, Honorable Mention in Sculpture, San Francisco, CA