Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Keafer.
Hi Heather, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve loved creating for as long as I can remember, working with whatever materials I could get my hands on — conventional or not. One of the most unconventional things I ever made was when I around 10. We were homeless at the time, and it was my dad’s birthday. I didn’t have much to work with material wise so I had to get creative, one thing I knew my dad loved was fishing. My parents were smokers, so cigarette butts was something I had plenty of. Using those, a few sticks, and some fishing string, I built a little stick man with a fishing pole — and a cigarette-butt “fish” on the line, with more hung floating around him. I’ve never had much throughout life, so I’ve learned early to work with what I have. That never really left me.
I started drawing around age five, copying whatever was in front of me — cartoon characters, our pets, the trees in the yard, anything. My uncle and grandma drew too, and I think that’s part of what lit that spark. At some point I fell hard for fantasy — dragons especially. I even got called “dragon lady” in school for drawing them so often, and a few art teachers actually discouraged me from painting them so much. I loved wolves also. I’m almost entirely self-taught; not sure I gained much from grade school art classes, and while I considered studying art in college, it’s not the direction life took.
My parents always encouraged my creative spirit, even without much money — they’d buy me little art sets whenever there was a sale.
I got more serious in high school, entered a couple of competitions, and did pretty well: first and second place in an American pride painting competition, second place in a timed charcoal self-portrait event. Around 16 I sold my first pieces, a couple of wolf paintings. They were cheap, and I didn’t even know to photograph my work first — but it was proof I was good enough that people would buy them.
Life got complicated after high school, and I ended up leaving the country for a couple of years. I left almost all my art supplies behind — just kept a sketchbook — but I never stopped creating. Eventually got my hands on paint again to do a portrait of my newly born daughter.
In 2020, I left a six-year job at Walmart for Michaels, and that’s when I really started creating again in a serious way. I’d just bought a house, my girls were getting to school age, and I finally had a little more time. I started posting my work — YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, eventually TikTok — trying to turn what had always been a hobby into an actual business.
People started reaching out, mostly for pet portraits, which is still what I’m best known for. The biggest order I’ve gotten so far was a portrait of someone’s grandparents, plus six individual portraits of the grandkids. I’d never painted a person for someone else before that, and I told the client that up front. In the end they were over the moon with it, and it’s still the commission I’m proudest of.
COVID made things harder — fewer orders, less time, and the cost of living kept climbing, so I had to take a job with more hours. Creative time got squeezed out, but it never fully stopped. I still write down every idea, and I make things here and there, usually as gifts. I picked up digital art recently also, partly due to it not needing setup time as a traditional painting would. Then off and on, I’ve also been working on my first ever Webtoon comic.
I’ve learned that creating doesn’t have to happen on a perfect schedule — it just has to keep happening, however it fits. That’s been true since I was ten years old with a handful of cigarette butts and some fishing string, and it’s still true now.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I touched on a few struggles already — growing up without much, the years I had to leave my art supplies behind. But if I’m honest, the biggest struggle is actually the one I’m in right now: finding balance in the rat race of everyday life. Between the cost of living and raising kids who keep growing faster than I can keep up with, time just escapes me. These days it feels like I have so many ideas racing through my head, and I never know when I’ll actually get the chance to bring them to life. Finding time for myself — ask any mother, that’s a real hurdle — but it’s one I intend to conquer one day.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I work across a lot of mediums — painting, digital art, wire-wrapped jewelry, wood burning, macramé — and pet portraits are definitely what I’m best known for. People sometimes frame that range as a weakness, like the old “jack of all trades, master of none.” saying, but I don’t buy it. If anything, working across mediums makes each one better — the precision I’ve built doing wire work shows up in the fine detail of a painting, the control from wood burning shows up in my linework elsewhere. Nothing I learn in one medium stays there.
As I said previously, I’m most proud of the portrait I did of a client’s grandparents, along with six individual portraits of the grandkids — the biggest commission I’ve ever taken on, and the first time I’d painted a person professionally.
What are your plans for the future?
My goal has always been to create professionally, full-time. Right now I’m working toward building an online workshop teaching how-to’s across the mediums I’m comfortable with — painting, wire work, wood burning, and more. The idea is for it to become a source of semi-passive income, one that could eventually let me leave my day job and be an artist full-time. That’s the real dream: finally having the time and freedom to bring to life every idea I’ve ever had.
Pricing:
- My paintings are priced $1 per sq in
- Wood burning art $1.25 per sq in
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azlyn13
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/19Fri8XgP7/
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/user/BellaDessrina13
