Artist Statement
As an artist I re-imagine the world how I want it to be.
My job is to plug us back in to our place in the sacred living Earth, to fall in love with life, with our bodies, and to do it through art. I’m interested in what is at the core of human experience, what connects us to our very earliest ancestors and how we are embedded in the natural world. I draw on women’s spirituality, sexuality and creativity, encompassing notions of witchcraft, sensuality and the erotic life force, looking for what is permanent and connects all life. I want people to experience the work in their bodies.
Ceramics, painting, photography, found materials, poetry, the spoken word, every medium comes at the same question from a different angle. What I can’t say with ceramics I say with paint, and what I can’t say with paint, I describe with poetry.
I often choose materials that have immediacy and vibrancy to ‘break the compression of perfection’ and let the life force in or out. I mix these with precious metals and stones, iridescent paint and glitter to create work with a physical, visceral impact.
ARTIST BIO
Originally from Cork in the Irish Republic, Jo Heckett trained at Chelsea School of Art and Brighton University where she received a BA (Hons) in 3D Design (Wood, Metal, Ceramics and Plastics) and an MA in Therapeutic Bodywork from Westminster University. She now shares her time between her London and Irish studios.
Heckett is a multi-disciplinary visual artist and poet exploring concepts such as mythological archetypes, Paganism, and themes of science and magic, all languages that aim to describe the indescribable.
She has a background in healing and meditation and draws on her own experience of the natural world, and a fascination with the earliest people.
about the paintings
I started painting as a way to use colour that wasn’t available working in ceramics. I build up many thin layers of acrylic and other materials which affects the way light passes through, making viewing them an interesting and rich experience.
Almost all my paintings reimagine the world as I want it to be, and explore what it would be like if it was designed around the feminine. By that I mean if the physical, the spiritual, erotic and sensual were not separated but worshipped as God/Goddess/The Lifeforce Itself. I believe in celebration, enjoyment and feeling everything. I live my life like this and each of my paintings explores this in some way.
They are meant to be experienced through the subconscious, and the body, as much as the mind. I consider them to be a kind of spell, imbued with magic as well as intellectual symbolism.
Working in layers to build up surfaces that are rich and varied, I use iridescent paint, collaged tissue paper and glitter that have their own physical presence. I like to use unexpected materials and techniques, such as attaching semi precious stones with silver wire directly to the canvas. Many of my materials are reclaimed. I believe in the inherent value in all things, even those considered the most humble.
They are intended to be experienced bodily, as living objects, changing with the light and movement around the room.
Each of my paintings starts from this premise. How do I imbue it with life force, with joy, wonder, delight, knowing?
About the caves
I’ve always been fascinated with caves, for their function and their metaphors. When I began making them, they allowed me to explore the idea and process of creativity itself. Where do ideas come from? How do they move from thought or inspiration into physical reality.
The caves are hand formed, pinched, beaten and then carved into their final shapes. The surfaces are layered up with slips, glazes and lustres, many have carved lines or marks painted on. They are intended to be explored with the hands and even ears.
Caves were our earliest homes, and the place we performed our magic, our rituals, buried our dead, and made our art. They also symbolise our connection to the earth, death and rebirth and the great womb. They are the well from which ideas spring and the place where remains gather.
Each cave is named after a fictional primal Goddess.