We recently connected with Chance Heap and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chance, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project was the one that made me realize I wanted to draw and paint for the rest of my life.  I started my creative journey when I was very young. I grew up loving to draw and paint but didn’t think anything of it until I was in my eighth year of grade school. I had been taking my art classes that my middle school had offered and really enjoyed them, I learned that I was developing a decent talent for drawing. At this time I was also on the cheer team for my school and had grown close with my teammates, it was a great experience and something that I had grown to love immensely. The summer after I completed eighth grade, our former cheer captain had gotten into a car accident and passed away, it was heartbreaking for our team and community. I had seen several others that I knew draw portraits of her to honor her including my mother. After seeing my mom create this amazing portrait of her, I decided that I wanted to do a portrait to honor her as well. I felt that with my growing skills I could bring a small light to a family who just lost their loved one. I had completed the portrait in colored pencils, a new medium and challenge for me. I was able to gift this portrait to her family and I saw the joy that my artwork had brought to them, it made me so happy! Since then I have created many other portraits for family members who have lost loved ones, it inspires me to keep creating. Knowing that my artwork can bring a sense of happiness and joy into the lives of others is what inspired me to start and to keep doing my art for the rest of my life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Chance Heap, I am a fine artist that specializes in oil paint, acrylic, and any other medium I can get my hands on. I have been creating since I was a little girl. I realized that artwork was my passion in middle school and have continued that passion to the present day. I graduated from Utah State University in 2022 with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts and an emphasis in Drawing and Painting including a minor in Entrepreneurship. I am currently working towards making this passion full-time while drawing and painting everyday!

My artwork expresses the happiness that we can observe in our everyday lives. I reflect and choose various subjects that introduce this sense of elation. One subject in particular is reflected in the majority of my artwork: Water. Rainstorms, swimming, surfing, the beach, all of these have been involved in my life as factors that has presented themselves as joy for me. Naturally I want to reflect these subjects in my work, water brings a great challenge and can exhibit many different mannerisms. Each painting brings a new challenge and a new way to create. Although my main theme for my artwork is the form of water, I also enjoy creating artwork based on personal interests. I grew up watching popular movies and television shows and grew to become quite an admirer of them. Marvel, Star Wars, Anime, and many other popular fandoms are some of the few that I enjoy creating fan art for on top of my personal paintings.

My process can begin in a variety of ways. I traditionally create an intuitive underpainting on the canvas using a variety of splatters, brush strokes, and even using glass beads or magazine clippings occasionally. I use these techniques to create texture in my pieces and to have a bit of fun before I start rendering the piece. I render in a naturalistic manner, creating and replicating my subject with accuracy and a touch of my own style added to the piece. I can render portraits, figures, landscapes, and many more with accuracy. I work in a wide variety of sizes and mediums, I can create anything you can think of!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission as an artist is to inspire and bring joy to others. I want to create that emotion of effervescence for my audience as they view my work, as well as to bring that sense of happiness to myself as I create. I believe our society can never have too much happiness and it is definitely needed more in a world that tends to focus on the negatives compared to the positive. I personally have had those moments where anxiety and depression have struck me and brought me down to a low point in my life, leading me to being uninspired to paint or create. I was in my senior year at university at the time and overwhelmed with my projects and prompts for my series. My professor could tell I was struggling with inspiration, in the middle of a critique he asked me “What do you want to paint Chance? What makes you happy?”. That simple question made me reflect on anything that brought me joy, running through the rain with my roommates, going out to surf with my dad early morning in Hawaii, wakesurfing and swimming with my family, and many more. Water was a reflection in all of those memories and I was inspired once again to create artwork that I enjoyed creating. I overall became happier through that and in my personal life as well. I reflected on the many times my work was in galleries and festivals and seeing the joy that my artwork brought when people would look at my work and tell me how much it meant to them or that it simply reminded them of something like their favorite album cover. It brings me joy to see that what I can create can spark that emotion in my audience and myself.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I believe that the small things matter. Social media is a big factor for growing our audience, client base, and customers for us artists. I think that those small things greatly improve our social media presence such as: leaving comments, giving likes, sharing our artwork, showing it to your close friends or someone you think would enjoy it. Word of mouth through social media or in person is one of the greatest things you can do for creatives, it creates that personal connection from one client to another, overall growing their customer base and support for their business.

Most artists like myself also have many affordable options for their artwork like prints, stickers, posters, and many more compared to purchasing an original piece. As an artist it’s important to me that art can be accessible to everyone, so I offer a variety of artwork purchase options for all!

A small sticker purchase or commenting on a creatives social media post might not mean much for an individual, but it means the world to us artists. I really appreciate and love everyone who has supported me and my art business!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TakeaChanceArtShop
• Instagram: @takeachance_art
• Twitter: @takeachance_art
• Youtube: Chance Heap

Image Credits
All images of artwork are created by Chance Heap Photo of Chance Heap – credit to Chris Mayfield