Heather McQueen is a painter, illustrator and photographer living and working in Northampton, Massachusetts.  Her work, representational in its nature, examines the details of everyday objects and plant life.

Ashawnta Jackson:  So, tell me a bit about your background, and the kind of work you do.

Heather McQueen:  I always did art as a kid, and eventually went to art school, but when I hit my mid twenties, I felt a lot of discouragement with art.  It’s been about 18-20 months ago that I’ve picked it up again.  I realized that I like doing this, it’s important to me.  When I wasn’t doing art, there was always this vague sense that something was missing.

The work that I chose to do when I returned to art incorporates my love of gardening and antiques.  I love digging through antique stores for objects, digging through the flotsam and jetsam of people’s lives.  And I’ve found that these types of objects really suit the type of work I’m doing. 

AJ:  You mentioned that you felt discouraged with art.  Was that from the art world?  Your personal work?

HM:  I guess I never felt part of the art world.  When I was first starting there was a lack of the online support you see now.  But through my personal growth, I understand how things are, and the ways to put yourself out there.

AJ:  So was it a question of lack of community?

HM:  It wasn’t so much a lack of community, but more a sense that what was important was doing art with a sense of purpose, and that’s what I missed.  Art making is a very solitary activity, though.  But, it’s helpful to share ideas with people, and I’m just at a point in my life where it’s easier for me to be open to that.

AJ:  I understand that you’re working with linocuts lately.  Can you talk a bit about that? 

HM:  Well, I did some printmaking in school, and was always interested in the idea of reproduction.  Linocuts have a similar look to woodcuts, which I’d worked with before.  I tried a few botanical objects and when I started looking through my sketches, the egg beater just seemed like a perfect subject. 

Playing around with the drawing, I just really got into its shape and structure.  I had to simplify the drawing a bit to work graphically, though.  I did the eggbeater and a few others that didn’t work out as well.  My break from art and maturity have helped me deal with the ones that don’t work.  I remember hearing Ira Glass talk about the stories on This American Life, and he said that “for every story we put on the radio there are seven we don’t use.”  I’ve accepted that you have to go through a few sometimes.

The next series I’m doing is vintage cookie cutters.  I’m looking at one I’m going to do right now, it’s a pig.

AJ: [Laughs] A pig cookie cutter?

HM: [Laughs]  I know!  Can you imagine that someone said, “I’d really like a pig cookie!” and made this?  I really love the silhouette of it though.

AJ:  Could you explain the technical process of linocuts?

HM:  Sure.  So, it’s a linoleum block that’s soft enough to cut and it’s mounted on a wooden block.  I do a bunch of drawings first.  Clear, strong lines work best and it’s best to work out the details ahead of time, as it’s difficult to fix mistakes on the block.  I try to work a lot out in the drawing, and trace it on tone the block, cut a few test prints, then refine. 

AJ:  So what do you usually press it on?  Fabric?  Paper?

HM:  I haven’t been doing fabric, but that would be good [laughs].  A line of eggbeater tote bags!

AJ:  They’d be a hit in Portland, I guarantee it [laughs].  So, what’s next for you?

HM:  Well, my husband, Chris, is also an artist and we’re starting a business together called Banana Watercolor.

AJ:  That’s an interesting name.  What’s the story?

HM: Chris keeps an art blog.  We both followed similar paths with our art and picked it up again together.  He was doing Northampton scenes at first, and posting them, and at one point he did a painting of a banana, and that painting is the most frequent hit on the site. 

AJ:  Going way back to one of the first questions, I’m really curious about botanical drawings.  They’re so precise, so scientific-

HM:  It is scientific.  The parts. the names.  I’m working on a kiwi fruit drawing now- the structure of it, the hairs, the seeds.  The function and the form go hand in hand, there’s nothing that’s there for no reason.  It’s amazing how much is happening in something that isn’t particularly remarkable- getting lost in that little world is appealing.  The best botanical painting brings that world into focus.

AJ:  Have you been working on anything else?

HM:  I’ve been playing with cyanotype.  I took a class called “The Chemistry of Art Objects” and learned about them.  It was originally how blueprints were made.  I was looking into it from a historical perspective, and fell into the alternative photography community.  The process needs the sun to work, so right now it’s a seasonal, summertime thing, which is appealing on some level, but I would like to have a setup eventually.