Great New Artist: Ref 2 Heide-Marie Meier

Heide-Marie Meier: “If art could be that what I wish it to be”

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive” Pearl S. Buck

Gigantic Canvas, Miniature Frame, Soulful Art

When I meet a true, sensitive, passionate, artistic soul like Heide-Marie Meier, the actual meaning of the following definition, which I once stumbled upon somewhere, come to mind: 

"Artistic sensitivity can be defined as the personal predisposition towards artistic beauty. It is the artist’s main motivation and engine, with the help of which they can get a better perception of reality than others. The artist can sense each incident they go through in a special, personal way, while they also take part in the day to day life of themselves and of other people. What they may add, due to their artistic sensitivity, are the frank expression of their emotions and enthusiasm, or the fruit of their imagination.”

Well said, by whoever, as if they knew Heide-Marie on a personal level and we can truly say that her art is not alone soulful, but also bigger than herself and taller than anyone else I know! At 52 she stands a mere (if I may guess) 1,5m in her socks. That is after we subtract the height of (a) the table as well as (b) the chair on the table, (c) the crate on the chair and (d) the pile of magazines upon which she stands to apply paint to one of her HUGE canvasses. Of course there are some mishaps, what are you thinking? Accidents happen and she is not a mechanical engineer, you know? But these misfortunes are absolutely limited to things and events off the canvas, if you understand what I mean. If you don’t – just look at the end results. 

Heide-Marie next to a completed massive painting

But who IS she really?

Heide-Marie was born in Keetmanshoop, Namibia, grew up in Windhoek, left Namibia to study at TUKS - BLC Law (Bachelor of Civil Law), but she did not like it at all. She however met her husband there and got married in 1992. The pair then moved back to Namibia to work there and three years later they relocated to South Africa “as I revered the tremendous amount of rain that we get in relation to Namibia”.

Where and what did she study?

Heide-Marie had quite a few jobs before she started to study jewellery design and manufacturing in 1997 at the Technikon Pretoria. She was at that stage older than the other students and took her studies very seriously, but still enjoyed the arts campus tremendously. It was a wonderful creative world for artists with plenty of fields to study and express their creativity.

 While busy with her higher diploma she was also lecturing jewellery design at the Technicon of Johannesburg as well as taught jewellery manufacturing at the Pretoria Technicon! During her higher diploma studies, she fell pregnant and her son was born in 1999. She then studies towards her master’s degree in Jewellery design, but was informed by the dean at the Technicon that she couldn`t be guaranteed of a job, even if she finished her master’s degree. Therefor she decided to rather spend the time and money to start her own business.

Heide-Marie’s Business Career

She opened her first jewellery business on the first floor of a “bad centre” in November 2001. “After 4 months I appointed my first employee, Adri Raubenheimer who until today is still working for me”. After 18 months she moved her business to Mall@Reds in Centurion in 2003 when the centre opened for the first time. She has been there since.

Her fine art career has always only been a hobby but in 2016 she got interested in tattoos and her passionate soul immediately fell in love with them. She went for a course and “started to practise really hard at tattooing - on pig skin!” She also did a course in permanent make-up and after that medical reconstructive tattooing. Six months later, in November 2016, she opened Skin Jazz Tattoo Studio at Mall@Reds in Centurion. She loved tattooing and being a true artist, she put a lot of effort into the design process before she did the actual tattoos. She also did permanent make up and later started with medical piercings. “As, by nature, I am unable to hurt people and we perfected the use of numbing during the tattooing and piercing processes. This gave us an edge as other tattoo shops did not offer that”.

The tattoo “factory” grew at a tremendous rate and she was fulltime in the shop after she sold the jewellery shop. But in 2017, she was shocked when she realized that the jewellery shop was going down. She took the business back February 2017 with a tremendous amount of debt and in 2018 she sold the tattoo shop to Carol van der Westhuizen that was working with her and mostly ran it since she started it.

Heide-Marie was back full time in the Jewellery shop, “but my heart was not into it”. I do not like the harsh business environment as it is “not suited for any artistic, passionate person”. She experienced it as unforgivingly cruel and thankless. “It was at this point that I started to flee from reality to the sanctuary of my art. I would become so involved with my painting that I lost touch with the outside world. I became obsessed with the meaning of the paintings and surrealism. Many of my paintings are directly influenced by things that were part of my life”. 

“Point of no Return” is a clear indication of where I have been, looking down the dark abyss with no options open. If it was not for someone calling my name, drawing my attention away from the darkness of the emptiness in front of me, and catching me before I fall, it would have been too late.” (Heide-Marie)

 “Most of the art I created during 2018 and 2019 is art with clear indications of my deep inner turmoil that was directly linked to the jewelry business and the damage done to it by the former owner as well as by my own neglect in a desperate hope to get away from the business world in which I do not belong, but have no choice other than to bear it, because of the tremendous financial burden.” 

“Endless” (2mx1m)	“End of music, Start of War” (2mx1,5m)

“The emotions I experienced are expressed in “The Darkest Recesses of Our Souls”. I am certain that I am not the only one experiencing turmoil, but I am one that have the ability to turn them into art. Therefore, as long as they exist, they will be the picture of my soul.” (Heide-Marie)  “Artists look more inward than outward: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” - Michelangelo. They go deep within themselves and pull out a song, poem, article, product, etc… because it’s inside them and they feel the NEED to make it real even if it risks them becoming a starving artist.” (Someone else)

Heide-Marie’s view of corporate affairs reminded me of someone mentioning that artists pursue beauty for the sake of beauty itself whereas business people only pursue beauty to build a business and nothing else. 

“An artistic personality type appreciates beauty unstructured activities and variety. They enjoy interesting and unusual people sights textures and sounds. They prefer to work in unstructured situations and use their creativity and imagination.”

That brings us to her Gallery…

“Artists are acutely sensitive to the ambient moods, sounds, pictures, people and events in their lives. They may resonate to their surroundings at an unconscious and deep emotional level”.

Heide-Marie’s sensitive nature, her love of art, her love of special people may be the reason for Heide-Marie to realize the dire requirement that new artists have to share and sell their art and she started the Mall@Reds Art Gallery, sponsoring it from her own pocket. I was once again, from the onset, a huge success. She organised and supported artists with positive comments and praise whenever deserved. Everyone learned to love and admire her. Within a few months there were more than 50 amateur artists exhibiting exceptional artwork there – until Covid19 struck and the doors had to be closed until further notice.

Immense growth

All brilliant artists sometimes need to stand back re-focus. Sometimes this re-focusing is the result of a conscious decision, sometimes forced by circumstances, but the outcome is always total self-exploration and reformulation with a glorious effect on output. The Heide-Marie experience was no different.

“During the first few months of 2020, I have lost my sense of understanding art and what is the point of art is if it has no meaning. What is the rationale? If art does not tell the stories of emotions, or conjures up emotions, why do we create? If our lives have meaning, then art has to have meaning, or reason for being? If our existence has no meaning or there is no point in our existence, yes, then art does not need to have a reason or meaning. But I seem to have been left out and ignorant on this. I am uncertain whether I am the only one asking these questions or am I the only one that do not have the answers? It is also clear from my art that I am in the dark on where am I going, where do I come from and why at all do we bother? My art shows exactly how uncertain and in emotional flux I am on the aspect of art, where to go, what to create and what is the point of it all……” 

Untitled	Untitled
“These two paintings have been created in two days, and they have only two things in common – one, I have created them and two, they have no meaning whatsoever….”

It is evident that during this period Heide-Marie really started exploring. She used new techniques and materials with breath-taking effect. I remembered opening the Gallery at Mall@Reds WhatsApp group page one day and there it was – extraordinary piece that made me rush to the gallery - the first thing I did was to ask where it was. It was truly amazing. 

“Wild oceans” (800mm x 400mm. Mixed Media)

 And then the rest followed, piece by piece… (like in the song).... 

“Kintsugi Eyeball”	“Kintsugi Mare”

“Contract Jog”	“Kintsugi Spirits”

“Are We Blind?” (500x1000mm)	“Container City” (400x800mm)	“Endless Possibility”

 Currently – a short pause…….

“For the time being, I do not create art. I feel that reality, and that what I thought it was, is not the same. We can only try, but reality will never live up to our expectations. We try to be fair as life will never be, try to be humane and kind as reality will fail to be. The only way of protecting ourselves is to live in a land of make-believe as in reality the artistic child will wither and die.”

We all know, where there is emotion, there is passion, and passion lights the fire for the creating of new art. I cannot wait for the next phase…..

Regards

Steph