Heidi Keith

AQ is our series of hardcover catalogs celebrating extraordinary women artists. Available on Amazon. Visit the AQ Catalog Webpage to learn more.

Heidi Keith is featured in AQ Volume VII.

I was raised in western Montana and live in Portland, Oregon, where I balance my time between painting, teaching, and raising two children. I hold both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Portland State University, and I completed post-baccalaureate studies in painting at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.


Artist Statement

In a culture that often clings to permanence—change is seen as something to resist. What is perceived as immutable creates the illusion that our identities can remain fixed in time. But this fixation denies a deeper truth: the self is not static. We are always becoming, shaped by time, by one another, and by the world around us.

My work explores the body and our sense of self as a fluid, ever-changing form—unbound, shifting, dissolving, and reforming. Through ink, I embrace the unpredictable nature of water, allowing figures to emerge and dissolve within translucent layers. This process mirrors the impermanence of identity and the ways we are shaped by our environments, histories, and emotions. Nobody exists in isolation; we are in constant motion, affecting and being affected by one another and our surroundings.

The lived bodily experiences from birth to death mark the body in visible and invisible ways. Particularly milestones such as adolescence, giving birth, and menopause—these forces are often moments of tension and transformation, shaping how we are seen, how we move through the world, and how we see ourselves. The shifting contours in my paintings speak to these layered narratives—some imposed, some chosen, all dynamic.

The tension between control and surrender is central to my practice. Ink spreads, bleeds, and pools in ways I cannot fully direct, echoing how we move through time and space—subject to forces both visible and invisible. In allowing the material its own agency, I explore the fragility of form, the beauty of dissolution, and the complexity of becoming. Figures drift between presence and absence, blurring the boundaries between self and environment, past and present, individual and collective.

In a time of deep social and political division, these works reflect the ways we are all interconnected—how our choices, histories, and struggles ripple outward, shaping the collective experience. Like water, we are inextricably linked, and our actions leave lasting impressions on each other and the landscapes we inhabit. The body, in this sense, is not merely a personal site of change but a shared surface, marked by the movements of others.

By embracing movement, distortion, and uncertainty, my paintings invite a deeper consideration of our shared existence—one that is fluid, porous, and constantly in flux. In honoring impermanence, I hope to reflect not only the vulnerability of the individual body, but also the resilient, interwoven fabric of the collective.


https://www.heidikeith.net