About Heidi

I think of my creative process as a journey. This journey began long ago. I am a collector traveling through life picking up bits and pieces of memories, items, places, and people along the way: all affecting my work. I spent most of my childhood vacations camping and exploring the forests and shorelines of the lakes in Michigan. From a very early age, I learned to gather and collect many things that would later influence my artwork greatly.

I concentrate on the accumulation of these things and incorporate multiples and repetition in my work. I am drawn to patterns, grids, numbers, calendars, and math. I examine the ideas of micro and macro within the arrangements of my collections. I create strong overall designs to draw viewers in from a distance, but love to incorporate small details that are discovered upon closer inspection. My curiosity leads me to look for connections and similarities in all that has been gathered along the journey. I integrate.

The materials that I use greatly influence the content of my work. I am drawn to many different items and enjoy exploring the unique characteristics of each. In my public artwork, I have primarily worked with hand made ceramic tile, metal, stone, and concrete. In my studio work, I use the plethora of collected materials I have and create an organizational system to construct and design within. I am not necessarily obedient to an object's intended use, and often find that when the boundaries are pushed, the best creations occur. As a result I consider myself a mixed media artist, first investigating the “stuff” that art can be made from, then examining many concepts and processes that lead to the completion of my ideas. The journey continues…

Heidi Dauphin is a mixed media/ceramic artist, born in 1970 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has lived in Phoenix since 2004. Heidi earned a MFA and BFA from the University of Michigan. She also pursued a K-12 art education degree at Eastern Michigan University. 

Heidi’s art career started in art education where she taught high school art in Michigan. After completion of her MFA, Heidi moved to Boston, Massachusetts and became the Exhibitions Director for a non-profit art center and ran two galleries. In Arizona, Heidi has primarily been working as a Public Artist in the Phoenix area. Heidi has completed projects for Valley Metro Light Rail, City of Phoenix, and the City of Avondale. She has also been an Artist-in-Residence, Guest Artist, and Art Teacher at several Phoenix area schools. Heidi continues working in her studio on large long-term public art projects, private commissions for families and local businesses, as well as individual pieces for various exhibitions.

Throughout her career, Heidi has shown her work at many galleries and art centers across the country including New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Arizona. She has completed two yearlong art projects (2000, 2010) that involved making art and collecting every day for a year, and has started the third in 2020. Heidi remains passionate about creating her artwork, educating all ages in art, and making art accessible to all.