Helios Heartstar
He/They
Eugene, Oregon, United States
“Helios Heartstar is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on queer imagery through a contemporary and historical perspective. Their work uses traditional metalsmithing techniques in tandem with digital drawings. It brings color light and weight to the queer experience. ”
“My work creates a sense of connection and wonder using queer imagery in connection to nature, color, material and process. Their pieces speak to the struggles, beauty, connection and disconnection that come from being a queer person in this collective cultural time.”
How does your work relate to the theme of restoration?
“As a reference to rose windows used in religious context. I use the idea of otherworldly and etheric motifs to describe a sense of awe, and a sense of balance that feels lacking in the cultural collective understanding. This piece, being pierced and sawed, as well as hand formed is a reminder of the work, care, and connection that creates our communities.”
"Return to the Heart" eLm
Photographs Courtesy of the Artist
How does your creative practice allow you to restore (renew, return, reclaim, recover)?
“My practice delves into the history of queerness and the concept that it has always been there. It highlights shared experiences like cruising, secret language and symbols, as ways to find our family. It is also reclaiming a sense of connection to nature, in the fact that nature is inherently queer.”
As a queer+, artist, what do you see can be, needs to be, or cannot be restored?
“What comes up for me in a the sense of restoration is looking past major religions and finding a connection to nature and our environments outside of the internet and really feeling into our bodies. I find such a feeling of peace and belonging when I am in nature.”
Photographs Courtesy of the Artist