We were lucky to catch up with Heather Hauptman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Heather thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I became an artist almost by chance. For most of my adult life I worked as a nurse. The hard science combined with working with people in their most fragile state taught me things I would have nevere otherwise known. It suited me, and I was content.

It wasn’t until I fell in love with a handsome stranger from a strange land that I let go of nursing. Leaving everything and everyone I ever knew behind, for him. We left Colorado in the US, and drove the Pan American Highway to his home in rural Argentian. Having only what would fit in my Toyota Pruis. Once I was far from home, I found myself. An inner artist that was always there. It gave rise to the name of my art business, Far From Home.

Heather, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

It starts as an urge to create. A ghost in my periphery, something haunting me until I surrender to it. The first step is hesitant drawing. I am a self taught artist, and more often than not my practice is relearning how to draw. Making soft marks that I erase, and draw again, and erase. I search for something at the end of my pencil. Search for what is in my mind’s eye, hidden in eraser bits, and discarded digital pixels. Eventually I make a commitment, and stop erasing. I let the ghost manifest through me.
These are the drawings that I embroider on second hand clothes. Clothes haunted by some else’s stories, letting my imagination find the place where the two ghosts meet.
My mark making on fabric is the same as drawing. I surrender to the sound of needle piercing holes, and the friction of the embroidery floss dragging through to the other side. Using a projector I trace the drawing onto the textile. The embroidery hoop stretches the outlines of the drawing, so I stop and readjust. Then I stitch in color, dimension and character. Like my drawings, I build my story. Until I’m surprised and proud of my making.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

We all tell the same story. Over and over. And yet we tell our own unique versions of it. No one life is ever the same, No one perspective is ever the same. I try therefore, not to bother myself worring about how my version is compared to others. It will be the same in many ways, and yet exactly unique. I enjoy lettting my story out, and the experience of letting life speak through my perspective. I make what I find pleasing to me, becuase who else is going to tell my story besides me.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I suppose I knew that anything you want to learn how to do, can be found on YouTube. But I never utilized its vast resourses until I became interested in art. The width and depth of information that can be learned there is stagering.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.farfromhomedesign.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heather.hauptman/