Creating Home: Meet Heather Deogracia

"Breathe in Mother Nature"
2024 Best 3D Art Award "Animals In Art"
Creative 360 Art Gallery, Midland, MI
Ink and Markers
by Heather Deogracia

It was an absolute pleasure to learn about the story of California transplant and artist Heather Deogracia. Her in depth education and struggles with mental health challenges have undoubtedly molded her unique perspective of the world. Read on to learn about her bright spirit and the persistence she has needed to push through to be where she is today. You’re awesome, Heather! I’m so glad you call Midland home and are continuing on in your creative journey.

Love,
Max

Max: Heather, to start, can you share a bit about your connection to Midland? How long have you lived here, what brought you to the area, and what inspired you to stay?

Heather: My connection to Midland started when my little sister Bonnie Deogracia moved here to central Michigan with a prior relationship with a military man. I was around 23 and graduating college from California State University in San Bernardino. Midland has been my home close to 18 years and I have lived in the same apartment on the main floor in a 100 year old house for 17 years.

My actual move to Midland came about when I was 30 years old and lost my dream job in radio broadcasting as a Continuity Director for an 80’s music station in San Francisco. My sister insisted that I could come live with her and at the time I could only bring two suitcases of belongings. At the time of moving to this area, I started to experience very serious mental health symptoms and had to be admitted several times to the MidMichigan hospital in the emergency psychological ward for my diagnosis of Bipolar I with severe mania, psychosis and suicidal depression. What has been inspiring me to stay has been my award of Disability insurance to pay for living expenses, my very love for the art community, and my long term relationship with my soulmate Matthew.

M: Well, we’re so glad you’re here! Tell us about your journey into the art world here. What is your background?

The art world journey really started when I was a very young creative child that read ferociously, enjoyed earning high grades in academics, and had a talent for telling stories through my pictures. My background really to be a professional artist didn’t really materialize until my first art class in high school at the age of 16 when I was held after class by my art teacher Mrs. Gonzalez. She really saw my potential and suggested I was talented enough to study the subject in college. The subject I enjoyed the most I discovered in high school as well when I would draw out the lessons on the board for the class of human anatomy and physiology. My teacher suggested that I should study to be a doctor because my grasp of health science came so easily to me. I got accepted into college at California State University San Bernardino and went straight to the Dean of Undergraduate Studies and laid out a five year plan to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Illustration with double majors in Pre-Medical Science and Fine Art. In my art major, my favorite mediums included sculpture, painting, photography, advanced life drawing, color theory and graphic design.

While in college, I was the Graphics Editor for the bi-weekly college newspaper where I learned journalism, advertising/marketing, illustration, comic strips and content creation. Right out of college, I landed a great position as a Advertising Designer for a national business journal and in three months time, I won an award from the American Advertising Federation for a series of ads for a furniture client. My second job doubled my salary as a Graphic Designer for an in-house marketing corporation for gourmet kitchen supplies for International campaigns. After I moved to Midland, creative jobs just weren’t available like they were in California. Around 2014, I wound up being prescribed an ADHD medication that thrusted me into a whole new level of focus and concentration where I woke up at 4 a.m., spent 5-8 hours a day studying big books and creating illustrations again. This is when I discovered myself again as a professional artist in Midland and began participating in the art opportunities of the Tri-City area.

Skeleton Graphite Sketch for Advanced Drawing Course
1999 College Art Portfolio, California State University of San Bernardino
by Heather Deogracia

M: Wow, what a unique combination of studies! I would love to hear about your art making process. What are your favorite ways to create and what keeps you inspired?

H: My art making process really is a mental tap into my imagination side in my mind. I really rarely use reference photos and instead made drawings that I came up with on my own. For quite awhile I was making a lot of pencil sketches and using illustrative mediums to create medium to large sized images. With my luck, the staff of Creative 360 invited me to share my images 8 years ago for a spot on Midland Community Television promoting the classes for ArtShop, which is for those with different abilities. I put up my favorite pieces on the wall and the television host, David Emmel, interviewed me about how I came up with ideas and my background as an artist.

Art therapy really brought me a whole new phase in my life and I could explain how my brain would calm down when I was using my energy into expressing my feelings through drawing. After the interview commenced, he was overlooking my other pieces of art and stopped dead in his tracks with a image I had done with my eyes closed. “This is what you should be exploring Heather. I can’t stop looking at this image.” I decided right then to explore the world of blind contour drawing or the practice of closing your eyes and not lifting the pen up off the paper until it is complete. This is now my favorite way to spend my time illustrating and what keeps me inspired is by setting my mind free to focus on any subject that my brain can imagine. A lot of people have commented that it is a easy form of art until I challenge them by giving it a try. Usually the scribble mark or “kid-like” quality makes them appreciate how challenging it can actually be. My dream is to create art that can be displayed in hospitals and be enjoyed by the public.

M: It's evident that art has played a significant role in your life, both personally and professionally. How has your artistic expression been a source of strength and resilience, particularly in the face of mental health challenges?

H: The one thing I realize about my mood disease is that it is a life long diagnosis that requires medication and talking with a behavioral therapist to sort through my thoughts. I’ve not required hospitalization in over three years and I consider that a miracle. I spent almost 15 years really suffering and being out of control of my inherited brain chemistry imbalance that would cripple my thoughts into throws of not wanting to continue living. If you were to meet me in person today, you would realize right away that my outgoing personality and upbeat conversational skills wouldn’t match with a person of a mental illness. Believe me that I am a strong and resilient woman because of my coping strategies arising from over 40 years of therapy and overcoming the worst childhood trauma imaginable.

Art is so significant to me that I thrive even if the stigma of the world weighs on my shoulders. Many people in Midland have suggested that I should not say that I am Bipolor or claim it as part of my identity. Personally or professionally, my whole wonderful part of life is in line with my manic streams that have pushed me to be more, think more and believe in myself more. I know the public can appreciate my art displays and exhibits even more after they know that I had to work very hard to overcome obstacles and brain constraints to create the unique piece they admire.

"Indeed Roses"
2019 Award of Excellence, 35th Annual Midland Artist Guild Exhibition
Acetate and Ink
by Heather Deogracia

M: I know you have a pretty special relationship with Creative 360 here in Midland- you mentioned their ArtShop program earlier. Can you share some highlights of your experiences and how being part of the Creative 360 community has impacted your creative spirit?

H: Creative 360. Where to begin. It makes me tear up a bit because they must know how much I love the staff and how I owe them my life. I spent 8 years in agony dealing with agoraphobia, not wanting to leave my house, because my medication made me gain 150 pounds over the years. I stopped taking care of myself and had no friends to speak of. The first thing I remember about Creative 360 was when I would first walk in that the [former] office manager Joannah Lodico would always greet me with a huge smile and care about what I had to say. The office space was also shared by an angel named Colleen Reed, the organizer of activities and the gallery administrator, and she too would share in on the conversation. Instantly the staff cared and was astounded when I brought artwork in to share. Being alone and even restrained in padded rooms of psych wards over the years, I thought no one cared about me or would help me to escape the horrors of a mental illness. My spirit was very broken and I sobbed all the time because my nervous system was so damaged. I had to learn how to be human again and I learned how to heal by slowly discovering my joy for art and getting comfortable around interaction with other strangers. It has been 10 years that I have volunteered there, taught a year of workshops and market/promote the non-profit art organization. Wiping my eyes now and staring out at the snow contemplating how far I have come. This is a heartfelt promise to always be thankful to the group of women that helped me realize that my creative soul made life worth living.

2023 Self Portrait, Ink & Colored Pencils
Creative 360 Art Gallery, Midland, MI
by Heather Deogracia

M: Thank you so much for your heartfelt honesty today, Heather. You have come so far! Building on the theme of community, what do you love most about Midland, and how do you see your art contributing to making Midland County a place where everyone thrives?

Well according to my resume collection of exhibits, community service awards and Award-winning experiences… I believe the theme of community in Midland has over-surpassed in delivering me with opportunities in the face of having disabilities. What I love most about Midland is actually how safe I feel. Being a resident of San Francisco for two years before moving here, I always had the fear of walking alone in my neighborhood, being confronted daily with numerous homeless individuals begging for money and just the dirtiness or slum of the streets. I did zero art work when I lived in the city and now I feel, at the age of 48, that I can really connect or thrive with artistic endeavors the public can see. Art really depends on the viewer and what they want the story to be. I want to show through my contributions that a broken girl can move here to Midland and metamorphasize into a full upstanding citizen that creates art from an authentic place in her heart.

VISIT HEATHER’s WEBSITE