Heather Farrell about her work:

“I work primarily with pastels on paper. This medium works well for me because it allows me to work more loosely and to enjoy the art-making process more. I often find my inspiration from nature elements and as of late, it has been the theme of fish and most recently; the theme of birds. The former works were done more from a design aspect and not with an intentional message behind the fish drawings. It was a cathartic release to draw more freely and to just allow the fish to swirl, so to speak. Sometimes I over think art-making and have wrongly assumed in the past, it should always be serious. In the instance of making the fish, I allowed it to be about the process and just having fun with it.
The latter works with birds – ties in more to an inspiration first from the images of birds but then further, what they represent for me. Birds represent freedom, the complexity of nature and the definitions beauty. What I was thinking at the time when starting the birds, was that the generalized concept of beauty in this modern age is never quite perfect enough. We are often looking to tweak beauty and make it a little more perfect. This is often seen in the bombardment of internet/social media images. The search for perfection takes a life of its own and we’re often left feeling empty and as if certain ideals of beauty can never be fully realized.”
Heather Farrell takes the images of the birds and alters them, perhaps contrive them with sparkly crystals to be more beautiful, scratch them out, cage and confine them. All in an attempt to make them something more, or less as the case may be than their natural self. Heather Farrell finds it interesting and disturbing that as we become slightly more advanced, we often cannot accept things as they are and try to change nature and natural beauty; bend it to our will for our own needs. That beauty and freedom is then adulterated.”