Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Heather Rippert. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Heather, thanks for joining us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

I want to talk about my parents and what they did right. Let me begin by sharing that I lost my Dad in 2020. He was my biggest cheerleader. The first thing my parents did right, after getting married and having me, was making sure they remained friends and put my needs first when they got divorced.

Throughout my early years of life and art making, my mom, Kathi Brook, was there for me at every turn. She attended every event, show, and activity I participated in, art related and otherwise. When I won a free class to a local art center in my early teens, my mom drove me to and from my classes week after week. She endured my teenage angst on the way there and my wide awake passion and enthusiasm after drawing for three hours, on the ride home. Mom encouraged me and nurtured my creative spirit into and beyond my attending Maryland Institute, College of Art for my Bachelor’s Degree.

Dad, Hank Rippert, was there cheering me on from the sidelines of his world too, particularly as I grew into adulthood. When Dad and I saw each other, we could talk for hours about my projects and what I was up to. Those conversations and his listening and understanding the business aspect of things were invaluable to me. I would email him pictures of my latest works, upcoming art shows, and news clippings and loved his endorsing responses. In 2019, when I had I live TV interview on Great Day Tampa Bay Live about a solo show I had at TECO Public Art Gallery, Dad was the first person I called afterwards. Having that deep connection and understanding made all the difference for me.

The lifelong love and support of both of my parents has been a gift I am deeply grateful for.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Like many in the art field, I discovered my creative outlet at a very young age. Ever since I can I remember, I was happiest when I had a pencil and paper to draw on. Growing up an only child, art became this rather magical realm I could easily drift into within moments of holding a coloring book or drawing pad and colored pencils. In the world of colors, shapes, lines, etc, I found myself and felt happy. Not much has changed.

No matter what, I have always had something going on in the world of art. It’s a winding road in the field of art, and there doesn’t seem to be a direct way or formula to “make it’ as an artist. Many of us have held day jobs in addition to our pursuits as artists. I worked in restaurants for 30 years, as I could never sit still in a desk job. All the while, I’ve participated in art shows, been a member of art groups, painted commissions, received awards, taught classes, and continued my creative practice without fail. Visit my website and check out my CV for more details about lifelong art accomplishments.

After I lost my Dad and best friend, Kellie Ricks, four months apart in 2020, I left the restaurant industry and took a day job in picture framing shop. Currently, my day job is as an art consultant and social media marketer at syd entel galleries/susan benjamin glass, etc. I’m there four days a week and the other three days, I’m working on building my art career and continuing my creative practice.

Last year, I was honored to receive one of ten Emerging Artist Grants from Creative Pinellas. The 10 month grant period was a powerful experience of growth and development. I am so proud of the deep work I did in creating a six piece painting series called Ode to Us: Me, Dad, Kellie. Creating those works was cathartic and meaningful to myself and so many others who have witnessed the work during the group exhibit at Creative Pinellas and beyond. People have been moved to tears by my pieces. Of this, I am most proud. There is nothing better than knowing your work has made a difference for someone else in some way.

One of the things that gratifies me, is my ability to express feelings powerfully through my work. My work is alive. It captures spirit and energy in a special way that is unique to me. Whether its a portrait, landscape, seascape, still life or abstract, my work is about the realm of spirit and energy that is behind the subject. Come take a look at my work, and see if you can feel it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Being resilient is imperative in the arts. Regardless of the many failures and missteps along my way, I never give up. I’m relentlessly committed to my art and will never stop. My art career doesn’t always look the way I think it should, or want it to look, but I am ALWAYS creating.

One of the most devastating and heart breaking experiences of my art career was being scammed by a fake art organization in 2006. They invited me to participate in the International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Trade Show, a major trade show at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC. I was thrilled and enthusiastically went about preparing for the show. Many hollow promises were made by the ‘representatives’ of the fake company. They set me and everyone else they were scamming up so well. They told us that the images we had submitted had been selected a large hotel firm and everything would be finalized at the show. Unfortunately, I believed them. I spent a lot of money on credit cards paying the exorbitant booth fees to them, framing art, having prints made, and then paid for travel and accommodations for the show dates in NYC.

My heart dropped when I arrived at the Javits Center. The fake art group did have a large set up that included many artists. However, it was haphazardly displayed and my work was by a service entrance area where employees of the Javits Center went in and out of with trash cans all day long. I had spent so much money I didn’t have on this, and the show looked terrible. I went to multiple people with the fake art group to address my concerns, to no avail. When I saw the ‘President’ of the company, he looked like a snake oil salesman. I later found out he and the CFO had both been in prison for different white collar crimes.

That weekend was heart crushing as the truth began to sink in that I had been scammed. I drank myself silly trying to drown out the painful realization. I spent one night sitting in the hotel lobby, talking for hours with my best friend on the phone. My art heart was crushed.

After many months of fruitless pursuits of seeking justice through reporting to the FBI, the BBB, art magazines, and connecting with others who were also scammed, I eventually let go of it all and moved on as best I could at the time. I have to admit that it is anxiety provoking to even recall this experience. I realize that I never really shared it completely. Perhaps writing this will help me really close that chapter for good.

I acknowledge myself for continuing on after such a heartbreaking betrayal.

Like I said before, I’ll never stop creating. It’s who I am.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Being able to pivot in life is really important. One of the key moments of pivoting for me happened in October of 2020. On May 15th, 2020, my Dad, Hank Rippert, died. On September 7th, 2020, my best friend, Kellie Ricks, died. My world was forever altered.

I was working in a very busy breakfast restaurant at the time. It was also during pandemic shutdowns, so we were operating at less than full capacity. I was ok with that. I knew I was leaving for New Jersey for Kellie’s memorial that October. I recognized that I was not ok in general after losing two of the most important people in my life. My boss had been great and I did let him know that I was going to need more time off to deal with my grief when I returned. We were short staffed and he said he would do his best.

The trip to Philly/NJ was poignant, beautiful and cathartic. I spoke at Kellie’s memorial and it was such a gift to connect with many of her friends and family. We had a gathering in Kellie’s beautiful home afterwards and I was able to take a few treasured items of hers. These are all important parts of the grief journey.

Upon returning home, I was scheduled for a Sunday at the restaurant. While I was gone, the governor had given the go ahead for 100 percent capacity again. So, here I was at a short staffed busy restaurant on the busiest day of the week. I’ll never forget the complete melt down in my mind as I had multiple tables, one with an order for two milkshakes (that I had to make from scratch), and an oblivious customer who knocked my hand as I was placing four glasses of orange juice on the table in front of her, spilling one of the glasses juice. I was grateful to be wearing a mask concealing my grief stricken irritation as I walked away to get a rag and napkins. I cleaned up the mess and went to make the milk shakes. as I returned to the area, I overhead the woman who bumped my hand say to the owner, “I don’t know what HER problem is, but…” I couldn’t hear any other words she said, because all I could hear were the words I wanted to say to her but couldn’t. I wanted to tell her what my problem was. My problem was that my Dad died, my best friend died, and I had to wait on people like her. That was my last shift. It was the end of my 30 years of working in restaurants.

Losing Dad and Kellie was a wake up call to me. Life is short and why waste time doing things that don’t fill your soul with light. It was time to pivot OUT of restaurants and INTO the world of art completely. I took a few months off, went to grief counseling, enrolled in a course with The School of Womanly Arts, signed up for Watercolor Live, and cried a lot. The stars aligned and there was an opening at framing shop I had been a customer of for many years. I adored the owner and worked there until he passed away. Now my day job is in a beautiful art gallery that has been around for 42 years. Every day, I move a little closer to realizing my dream of being a full time artist. I’ll keep pivoting, even when that dream is a reality! There is always room to grow and develop.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.heatherrippert.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/heatherrippert
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/SheDreamsInWatercolor/
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/heatherrippert
• Other: https://creativepinellas.org/artist/heather-rippert/

Image Credits
Heather Rippert