Artworks by Heather W. Ernst

Yes, despite being an abstract landscape and contemporary abstract painter, I can be very silly. I grew up in New Jersey obsessively building with Lego and Erector sets, but Tinker Toys were too boring for me. I had to move onto old school pen and ink perspectives in architecture school to further torture myself while I was learning line drawing of nudes and other things my art teacher came up with. She asked if I wanted to venture an architecture school program in Manhattan for her specially talented students. I did, and then got my master’s degree in Denver. I lived there three decades. My aerospace engineer husband brought us to Seattle in 2018.

You wouldn’t know my entire life time I’ve been learning not to doubt myself. As I sat next to a painting during a brunch out at Cafe Terra Cotta in Littleton, Colorado, one day in 2013, I said, ” I can do that ! ” I took an acrylic painting course, also continued teaching myself, and within a few months, I was asked if “Jesen Shizzle” was for sale. This began web sales for me while I continued raising my family, then directly in person from artist to collector, and it’s done nothing but grow since. This is my new season of life, as once was the architecture license I gifted myself, instead a direction towards interior design. I’m not a “should have, could have, would have” kind of person. I always make it happen come… high water.

Here I am. I’ve exhibited in solo and group exhibits throughout Colorado and Washington state.  My work is found with private clients throughout the United States, U.K., Germany and New Zealand. I keep my Studio 211 on 1120 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma.  I graduated with a B. of Architectural Studies and a Minor in Fine Arts from Skidmore College in conjunction with The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.  After my Masters of Architecture Degree from U. of Colorado in Denver, I practiced architecture in high end residential, medical and retail projects to $12M for about 25 years.