Heather C. MacRae was raised in upstate New York and moved to Savannah, GA in 2011. MacRae’s work explores the human relationship to the environment. This stems from observations on the internal/external structure of the human body and the internal/external structure of buildings. This interest wavers between direct representation of environments and structures as well as the deconstruction and abstraction of observed forms in her work. In her ongoing series “Landscape and Structure” she focuses on the tension and balance found in the urban/suburban landscape. She finds a desire to render the spaces we define as public and private- views from the sidewalk, alleys between buildings what can be seen just beyond fences.  She views these moments of temporality and glimpses of intimacy a passerby on the street can experience gratifying. In the studio, MacRae tries to touch upon the dichotomy between the stable and the fleeting using various elements of direct rendering from reference images as well as areas of flattened space, moments of transparency or translucency of color, and loose gestural brushwork. She responds to light and shadow and creates a moment between past and present, between observation and internalization.

In MacRae’s 2018 and 2019 series’ “build and “pedal” embody her examination of the relationship between the ideas of permission and the body. These series also sought examine our connection to the body and the figure as barriers to be crossed and how we facilitate, disregard, or nurture these barriers in our relationships to one another.

Heather C. MacRae works and lives in Savannah, GA. and teaches in the Foundation Studies Department at the Savannah College of Art and Design.