Artist Biography
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Heather MacBeath is a visual and performing artist. Inspired by the movement of the human body and how dance can be used to express human emotions, MacBeath creates choreography that explores spirituality, mental health, and empathy. Parallel to her dance composition, MacBeath also creates oil paintings that capture moments of balance, strength, and self-awareness in the dancer’s body movements.
MacBeath is currently pursuing her Bachelor in Fine Arts degree in Studio Art with a concentration in 2D Art and a minor in dance at Endicott College in Beverly, MA. She has been practicing studio art since childhood and has had dance training at the Dance Place in Arlington, MA, and BoSoma School of Dance in Hamilton, MA. She currently performs with the intensive Repertory Dance Ensemble on campus at Endicott College.
MacBeath has interned with several local artists in the North Shore area, including plein air artist Joli Ann Wood, Todd Montanaro at Gallery Montanaro, and Timothy Neill at Allied Conservation. MacBeath’s artwork and dance choreography have been featured in multiple art exhibitions, including the Student Invitational Exhibition at Endicott College, where her artworks were featured four years in a row while studying at Endicott College, won the second place award in 2022, and the third place award in 2023. She is also a co-founder and primary artist at Mile 54 Fine Art Studios and has created many commissioned artworks.
Artist Statement
My artwork combines the visual and the kinesthetic by pairing dance and oil painting to communicate a topic. I have found that putting my thoughts into choreography rather than words has been a powerful communication tool in my life, and it allows me to express hard-to-communicate emotions and opinions. In my painting practice, I have discovered that painting the body can convey more than just showing its structure of it; it can also help visualize what that person is feeling through body language and movement. The freezing of an instant in time, such as in a dance, allows the viewer to experience a more intimate connection with the dancer being portrayed, letting the viewer analyze the moment more in-depth. My paintings are carefully constructed in a way that conveys the expression of my choreography through the visualization of the dancers’ bodies in movement.
My creative process starts with an idea. The idea, in this case, personal perspective, inspires me to choreograph movements for dancers to perform. I take the emotion I feel from this topic and put it into my own body, composing dance choreography. I then capture significant moments of this emotionally-driven movement into paintings. I use oil paint on wood panels, using layers of paint to show light and shadow, emphasizing the depth of the body’s structure. I draw my inspiration from the empathic power of dance and how it allows people to communicate without speaking a word. As an empath, I have found that feelings, emotions, and opinions can all be portrayed through body language and interactions with other people and situations. This realization allowed me to harness my own emotions and opinions in my choreography and paintings.
My artwork provides an environment in which various ideas can be explored through the arts’ communicative properties, giving the participants and the viewers a better understanding of how art can function as a sort of language. I hope to encourage empathy in others and the ability to view the arts as more than just visual.