More News

Judith Olivia HeartSong's art is not provocative. She's through with painting her problems. And while her flora and fauna paintings stray dangerously close to being decorative, their larger than life size saves them from being merely pretty.

HeartSong's metamorphosis from victim to self-supporting artist began some six years ago when she fled a difficult marriage on the eve of her 40th birthday. She left her car, a winter coat and even her beloved paintbrushes behind in Orlando, Fla., and came to Rockville, desperate to start anew. Although the self-taught painter had been creating art since her childhood in Twanda, Pa., on that day, she thought she would never paint again.

What a difference time and 750 miles made. Sitting in her studio at VisArts in Rockville, the artist's enthusiasm bubbles over during a discussion of her painting and photography exhibit "Snapshots: The Fine Art of Green," on view through May 15 in Bethesda's Washington Gallery of Photography.

While primarily a painting show, HeartSong is presenting her nature photos as well.

But "The photos are simply references, not art," she points out.

With an inspirational photo placed beside a painting, the artist wants viewers to understand how she interprets the image, confiding, "Artists never do this."

HeartSong's artwork is refreshing and uncomplicated. Using a rainbow of acrylic paints, she carefully depicts a sunflower's intricacies and the lacy hairs covering a succulent plant. Even the most cynical art critic can't help but feel her exuberance.

So the question is: How did she get from runaway wife to survivor? Without much prodding, and with candor, HeartSong tells her story. During her childhood in rural Pennsylvania, she spent her days outdoors, hiking in the woods, to all appearances an ideal bucolic existence. The dark truth was that her family would not believe her claims of sexual molestation by a family member. At just 18, HeartSong fled from her home to get married, and soon became a fulltime homemaker with two children. Married life wasn't much of a honeymoon, but Heartsong continued painting, creating colorful and flamboyant "public art" as well as darker "private art."

At shows in Florida galleries, she observes, "Women seemed to gravitate to my private work." And soon they were seeking her out to recount their own horror stories.

A 20-year high school reunion changed her life forever. There she rekindled a friendship with an old friend Virginia Heatwole, who offered her a safe haven in Rockville.

Even with a restraining order in hand, healing took some time. HeartSong didn't touch a paintbrush for six months. Without a job, she took the Metro to the Smithsonian art museums each day.

"I couldn't stand being at home, looking at four walls and worrying," she recalls.

Never without her journal, one day she sat at the U.S. Capitol and started drawing, "a weird moment," she says.

Heatwole, her friend and eventual life partner, had been bringing small tubes of watercolor home each night, hoping to inspire her. Once HeartSong started drawing, Heatwole helped her get her first art assignment: a mural of Sumatra's jungles for the National Zoo.

"They didn't pay me, but gave me paintbrushes and all my supplies," she says.

Now HeartSong works three days a week at Art Matters, a corporate art consulting firm, and paints the other two. Wired to the Web, she also has created a daily blog. It's not an all-personal exploration; the Web has helped her advertise her work and earn commissions. Currently the painter's limited edition nature prints are sold on the Princess Cruise Lines.

Sounds like this artist's flowers are her power.

 "Snapshots: The Fine Art of Green" is at the Washington Gallery of Photography, 4850 Rugby Ave., Bethesda, through May 15. Hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Monday and Wednesday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday. Call 301-654-1998 or visit www.wsp-photo.com.