Today we’d like to introduce you to Mandie Harding.
Hi Mandie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am a mixed media artist and educator whose work is rooted in personal narrative, healing, and the reclamation of voice. Drawing from my lived experiences as a survivor, I use materials like drawing, painting, collage, textiles, and found objects to create layered imagery that explores memory, anger, shame, resilience, and self-care, often symbolized through the color red. For me, creating is both catharsis and testimony, a way of stitching myself back together while offering space for others to feel seen.
My path has always centered on connection. From my formal training and professional work in galleries and design to my role as a high school art teacher, I’ve used creativity to support growth in myself and my community. Today, my practice extends beyond individual artworks into collaborative, survivor-centered projects that invite healing and shared transformation.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My life hasn’t followed a smooth or predictable path. There have been many moments of hardship, trauma, and uncertainty that challenged my sense of safety, identity, and direction. Those experiences were not easy to carry, and for a long time they felt incredibly isolating. But over time, they became the ground from which my work and purpose grew. Art gave me a way to process what I had lived through, to transform pain into something visible, and to reclaim a sense of agency and voice.
Because of those struggles, I approach both my artwork and my teaching with deep empathy and intention. I understand how complicated healing can be, and that understanding shapes the spaces I try to create for myself, for my students, and for others who encounter my work. The difficulties along the way do not define the end of my story, but they did shape the artist and person I’ve become.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My artwork moves between the studio and the community. I create mixed media pieces that combine figurative imagery with layered materials, but I’m equally invested in projects that invite participation, reflection, and shared experience. I’m interested in how art can hold complicated emotions – how something fragile, stitched, or assembled can carry both weight and tenderness at the same time. Much of what I do explores transformation: taking what feels broken, hidden, or difficult and reshaping it into something visible and meaningful.
What I’m most proud of is building spaces where creativity feels safe and purposeful. That might look like a collaborative project like the healing quilt I’m currently working on. I’m sewing, weaving, building from textiles donated by other sexual violence survivors (still accepting donations). It might also look a quiet moment of recognition in front of an artwork, or even growth I witness in my students over time. Those moments of connection matter more to me than any single finished piece.
What sets me apart is the way I approach art as both practice and care. I move fluidly between making, teaching, and facilitating experiences for others, and I see all of those roles as part of the same commitment – to use creativity to foster honesty, resilience, and human connection.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is creating spaces both in my artwork and in my teaching where honesty, healing, and connection can exist. I care so very deeply about giving form to experiences that are often hidden or difficult to talk about, and about making work that allows others to feel seen rather than alone. Creativity, for me, isn’t just about producing objects; it’s a way of processing, understanding, and transforming what we carry with us. Creativity heals us.
This matters because I know firsthand how powerful it can be to have a place where your story is acknowledged and your voice has room to exist. The moments when someone recognizes themselves in a piece of art, or when a student discovers confidence in their own creativity, feel far more meaningful than any external recognition. At the core of everything I do is a belief that care, empathy, and expression can create real change both quietly and collectively.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mandiehardingart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mandiehardingart/
