Heidi Pitre

heidipitre.com

Born in New Orleans Louisiana and focused on art from a very young age Heidi Pitre was usually drawing while other children were outside playing. Not raised in a creative household, she found the promise of an art career, oddly enough at a local junior college. A BFA from the University of New Orleans soon followed. She is a Pollock Krasner Grant recipient, a Mississippi Arts Commission Fellowship recipient, as well as the awardee of many more additional grants, residencies, and scholarships. She has participated in numerous solo and group shows in Telluride, Austin, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and others.

Heidi Pitre currently resides in Austin, Texas, but claims most of the South as home, and it is that South which seems to always seep its way into her work. It is provocative but gentle, connecting us to personal memories through intimate and nostalgic amusement. She has the ability to strike a chord in people, giving them permission to laugh at a memory. Whether it’s a bad hair day or a bad marriage, with time, edges can be softened into warm recollections. Her work is a collection of short stories, sharing messages from the perspective of different people who understand what it means to be a floundering mother, an awkward daughter, an exhausted housewife, a scorned lover, someone who has been through hell and back. Her characters prove that everyone can embrace their own realities, laugh at tragedies, spotlight bad decisions, expose vulnerabilities, and choose to exchange pain or sadness for a new understanding of the past.

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