Heidi McGurrin specializes in Fine Art, Commercial Display, Weddings and Portraiture. For the past few years she has been teaching as a Professional Artist in the Schools for the Arts Council of Monterey County and giving her own private workshops on creativity, using journal and collage imagery to create individual personal stories. Her work has been featured in Books, Magazines, and on album covers locally and nationally. Her photographs have been published in 'Steinbeck Country Revisited' 2000, and 'Coyote' by Richard Miller. Her illustrations accompany the stories in the 'Rocky Point Murders' published October, 2001. Her ‘Havana Dream’ book has just been published on Blurb.com. For the last 31 years she has been photographing Big Sur, and the Central Coast of California, the Southwest and the Southern hemisphere. Cuba, Haiti and Mexico. She has worked with several well known photographers including Brett Weston, Cole Weston, Al Weber, and Morley Baer.

Heidi’s photography has been exhibited in Galleries and Museums throughout the Central Coast and Washington D.C. She recently finished a commission for the Santa Lucia Preserve in Carmel Valley. She has exhibited at the Monterey Peninsula Museum, the Carl Cherry Foundation, the Center for Photographic Art, and the Ansel Adams Gallery, to name a few.

She has a strong interest in Mexico, Cuba, and Haiti from where she has recently returned with a rich collection. Her images evoke the time and spirit of the currently unsettled states, and endangered lifestyle of their people. Heidi McGurrin is becoming known for her Cuban, Haitian and Mexican work. She has been honored to present her Cuban Exhibition work on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. In May of 1998 she was invited by Congressman Sam Farr to present her collection of Cuban photography in the the Cannon House Rotunda. Her life thoughts and travel impressions were written into the Congressional Record by Congress. In September 2011, she published her Cuban book ‘Havana Dream’ on www.Blurb.com.

Heidi photographs tell stories that make you feel the rhythm of our planet and helps us understand it better. Her images are about being strong and being in one’s heart. The timeless beauty of her photography surrounds us and makes us feel the infinity of life itself.

Subjects in my art are thought provoking, confrontational and deal with subjects that most artists avoid . I present some questions in my work but no answers.My work is sexual from a male perspective, spiritual because I am, political because it is all around us and artfully presented with a rash of movement, energy and emotion. Through a display of complimentary color, cubist abstraction and surrealism the viewer connects  to the image/s

If you are thinking of starting a new religion, I may have the art for you. Or maybe you are goth , check me out . Or maybe you like something that the has elements of Old School thinking with a contemporary feel that's timeless, then check me out.  I am new , I am old and if you look, I mean really look, perhaps you will see more, much more than you imagined.

I will be showing new work on paper and canvas, along with a jacquard tapestry or two, at the upcoming open studio event at The Point.  My background in fabric design and my life-long involvement with fine art come together in these works.

The collection ranges from some done a few weeks ago to others done in the early 1990's. (Last century!) Every item contains an idea or illustrates a passionate commitment to something I have seen. Examples of the idea-based work include those with a visual reference to a time after the great flood. You can take that as a statement of my belief in global warming, and the great flood that might ensue, or as my version of what the world looked like after Noah launched the Arc! There are (sardonic) biblical reference in a couple of works, notably one called 'Expulsion', which depicts the four lead characters-Yaweh, Eve, Adam, and the serpent as I imagine them. My other side, my optimism is reflected in the many landscapes and gardens that are the subject of many of the works. I can't see a beautiful tree, or windblown shoreline, or flower without drawing them. I have for many years been admiring us--our faces, our bodies, and our fantastic ways of moving, and there is a small selection of drawings that I hope gives a sense of that. Since I am a retired urban designer and a passionate observer of the urban street, there are several city views, which are as much about how we live in the urban setting as about the setting itself. We can share the sidewalk, tne alley, and the park with our fellow human beings, and live to tell the tale!
I hope you enjoy the work.
I have.

My current work involves different ways to look at landscapes. I use VertEscapes to invite the viewer to an interactive experience of imagining what lies beyond the borders of the artwork. I also like to explore the hidden "energy" within the living body of the world around us.

Thumbnails cannot show the full length of the VertEscapes. Please click on the images to reveal the full picture. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

-MKNZ

Through the painting process my mind is involved in a mental volley of questions and answers. What colors to mix? What shapes to paint and how do these shapes relate to each other? What to leave in a painting and what to leave out? These are common questions for artists but how we answer them is what makes each piece of art unique.
The nature in my paintings come from direct observation although I also use drawings and photos. The concepts come from feelings, music and dreams.