We recently connected with Heidi Clifford and have shared our conversation below.

Heidi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

With the opportunity to create a solo show in 2021, I started with the idea of “what it is to bloom” and let that direct what work I would make. I knew I would make some paintings, but also wanted to go in a whole new direction. Intending to create an interactive experience, I thought a lot on how to manage interactivity within an art piece, and how to fully involve my viewers in the work. What came of this was the design for a simple, rectangular tunnel where the audience would walk through a blossoming floral installation, partially enveloped by it. The beginning of the tunnel would be greenery and small flower buds just popping through, and this would morph into larger and larger flowers throughout the tunnel, ending with larger-than-life flowers all made of tissue paper.

Being able to create this piece with extra studio space, with the help of friends, toward a vision that was self-funded, random, fun, and yet perfectly authentic to who I am brought a lot of love into the piece, and the show as a whole. I knew what installation art was prior to making this, but never envisioned myself creating larger-than-life 3D pieces. Since this show opening in July 2021, I have been able to blossom as an installation artist now, and take this part of my career further. I’ve been commissioned to make new 3D pieces, and have had the opportunity to still make works for myself too.

This project stands as one with a lot of meaning for me as it set the foundation for a pivotal moment in my career, and has since allowed me to grow and truly fall in love with my work, and myself even more. Taking my work to new levels doesn’t feel so impossible, and really only asks the question of, “how?” (Usually, just one more trip to Lowe’s…)

These tissue paper floral pieces are one of my biggest passions now, and being able to share this unique and experiential work with others, means a lot to me. That my work lives beyond walls and often in more than one space feels incredible. By investing in myself and my artistic visions, I have gotten myself here and I’m incredibly proud of that.

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

Professionally, I go by Primary Child. This is my artist name and comes form my love of color theory and how color is built off the primary colors. It’s also a slight dig to my family and siblings – I’m actually a quadruplet and we’re all pretty equal in that respect, and I’m not the first born either. But here and now and in what I do, I am the Primary Child.

I graduated high school fresh off the track of several traditional art classes and AP Art. In touring colleges, going into graphic design felt like a smart career choice, and I went to Columbus College of Art and Design, graduating in 2018 with my BFA in Advertising & Graphic Design. Fresh out of school, I had my first mural job lined up and was already interested in getting into them more. Two years later, after the pandemic began and after working some side jobs that just weren’t for me, I found myself unemployed in May 2020. I had done a few more murals since my first, and decided immediately this was the time to push for the career I wanted, and that if I was going to run a mural business, I needed to take it seriously.

More than three years later, I am a muralist, installation artist, and designer running my own business getting to create the life I really want for myself. My mission is to cover the world in color, balance play within art making, and bring meaningful public art to communities. Primarily, I am painting murals, currently working with Columbus Society of Communicating Arts as Co-President this year, working with local design clients, creating work for shows and other opportunities. My favorite parts of my business are getting to create fun murals for cool clients, and installations that feel like dreamland experiences.

I’m extremely proud of myself for forging this path through the last few years – it certainly has not been easy. When people come to know me – and the only way to truly know me is as an artist – I hope they can see and understand the radical love I have for myself and how much that extends to and supports my work. I love that I get to create tissue paper installations and throw paint on walls – my inner child is happy every day for that.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In the last three years, I’ve built up my business for myself and have been able to do some incredible things that I’m so proud of. I went into 2023 knowing I wanted to rebrand and refresh my website, but through a mountain of obstacles and set backs in my personal life, my rebranding was put far on the back burner. Midway through 2023 now, my life has straightened out much for the better, and I recently had the opportunity to complete a mural with a friend for her job. She has since left the job, and we decided we would go into business together. As I had never finished my rebranding, this has aligned with the right time to relaunch this brand as a duo and we are excited to go into this together and support each other with out different strengths. My business partner, Ashley Palmer, is a talented designer and will grow the footprint of this brand across two cities – Columbus originally, and now Canton, Ohio where we are both from. Currently we are finalizing our branding assets and getting ready to relaunch our website and social media – stay tuned for more on that!

It was a spur of the moment decision to bring Ashley on as I filmed us painting the mural together, but saw a future that looked really fun. And I’m in a season of life where I’m willing to run after the things I truly want, and this relaunch felt very aligned. We both still do projects on our own, but as it comes to murals and the majority of design projects that come through, we will be working on them collaboratively. It’s important too to know when is the right time to make decisions like this, and you have to just trust your gut a lot. If it feels right, it probably is.

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

When society, be it cities, private businesses, public services, community groups, non-profits, etc. want art in any respect, they need to trust artists and their capabilities by thoroughly vetting who they are wanting to work with and by having processes and procedures that are clear and not redundant. Being an artist and constantly handling 5-10+ projects and any number of those needing sign-offs from multiple people gets to be a lot of communicating. Creating processes before working with artists that value their time and use it wisely helps us want to take on especially public facing projects too. By listing budgets, square footage or dimensions, scopes of work, timeline, etc. up front, you help to make things clear for us, and make it easier to decide what is and isn’t worth it. When you have to go through half a dozen people to get all this information and one point person for the project doesn’t just have the information hand easily, it can be hard to want to do the work. Also, companies need to do their research in terms of what project costs can look like, and be realistic when wanting to hire artists in any capacity. Offering budgets that come out to minimum wage or less is pitiful – think about what you’re willing to work for, and what you are asking of someone else. All of this together helps create a thriving system for artists.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.primarychild.studio
• Instagram: @primarychild_studio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-clifford-3b5970b8/

Image Credits
Terry Gilliam Photography – Heidi_night_1_Terry Gilliam Photography.jpg