Rose H.

Reflection Book
Credit: Rose H.Artist Bio

My name is Rose Heineman. I moved from San Francisco, CA to Portland, OR six years ago with my partner and now 8 year old child. I previously worked for over 15 years in the design industry in the Bay Area. Before that I worked as a preschool teacher and a yoga teacher. I’m also a practicing artist with a bachelors degree in fine arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. My art practice is historically rooted in the natural world. As a child, playing outside in nature without the digital distractions of today was an important part of my development. This deeply held connection to the natural world fuels my imagination and has always been a source of healing and regeneration. I also grew up with family ties to Buddhism. As an adult I have found community, healing, and self-knowledge through my connection to the Eastern spiritual practices of yoga and meditation. Making art, exploring the natural world, and spirituality are lovingly held, life-long practices of health, healing, and personal growth.

Currently, my internship is located at both an elementary school and a middle school. I am appreciating the opportunity to see, hear, attune to, and accompany children between the ages of 5 to 14 as they grow and develop throughout the school year. Through grief and loss groups, open studio groups, social and emotional groups, and individual sessions I hold supportive space for creative growth and healing through art therapy practice.

Artist Statement

I created three art pieces to represent important elements and considerations of my identity that includes my emerging art therapy career. The first work created was “Reflection Book”, the collage book with blackout poetry. For my process I flipped through magazines and cut out the images I was most drawn to as a process of self-trust and of claiming my own creative authority. I considered that all people are their own authorities on their lives with the ability to claim their own inner, creative impulse which is a guiding value of my art therapy practice. The blackout poetry words represent my personal preferences for the themes of the natural world and the deeper, spiritual aspects of life. Honoring the human spirit and the resilience inherent in human nature and in the natural world emerged from the poetry. Opposition to the systems that harm nature and the human spirit are also woven into the poetry. I designed “Hypnotic Songs” the poetic digital artwork to explore flexibility and multiple perspectives through an iterative process. The words originate from the collage book and I reordered many of the lines of the poem to explore flexibility and open mindedness in the creative process. In consideration of the therapeutic process, collaboration relies on opening up to other ways of being and knowing. “Breathing Space”, the large mixed media art piece was created as a space to hold my own healing process. I started with a watery, ink layer. I then used brushes of varying sizes to create layered lines and shapes. Many of the thin brush strokes were delicate and gentle. These gently created lines felt like self-kindness and compassion. I considered the uncontrolled, watery ink used in the beginning to be my own messy, human process with the controlled pencil lines as a process of perception of the whole.