Biography
Heidi Leitzke is a visual artist exploring the wonders of nature and realms of imagination. Her thread paintings have recently been included in exhibitions at Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn, and in Philadelphia at Gross McCleaf Gallery, Cerulean Gallery and University City Arts League. Her piece Susquehanna Isle is currently on display in Swaziland, Africa as part of the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program. Additional exhibitions include No Man’s Land: A Collection of Works by Contemporary Female Artists at Andrews Gallery, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, Interwoven: Art, Craft, Design at Arlington Art Center, Arlington, Virginia and Stitch, Beyond F unction at the Zarrow Center for Art & Education, part of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Leitzke’s work has been recognized with a Juror’s Mention from critic Jerry Saltz and an award from Hrag Vartanian, of Hyperallergic. She has been featured in print and on-line publications including Susquhanna Style, The Jealous Curator and Inertia, studio visits and artist insights. Her work is in many private collections.
Leitzke graduated with an MFA in painting from Western Carolina University in 2006. She also studied at the Chautauqua Institute School of Art and American University’s Art in Italy program. She earned a BA in Fine Arts, with honors, from Anderson University in 2002.
Leitzke is Assistant Professor and Director of the Eckert Art Gallery at Millersville University. She has taught at the Chautauqua Institute School of Art, Drexel University and Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, where she was also the Gallery Director. From 2016-2017, she was the Public Art Manager for the City of Lancaster, PA where she lives and works.
Artist Statement
Many of the works on paper on display here at King’s Oaks, were drawn from a deep well of memories. Summer nights spent along lakeshores, looking up at the Milky Way from the wooded forests of Wisconsin. Most of the pieces include an image of the moon set in a dream-like or fantastic landscape. The places in these images are not necessarily real, but hopefully will feel familiar to viewers. The ink drawings and embroidered thread paintings are often set at night, and are, with the exception of one or two pieces, created with a limited color palette. I am hiding and revealing layers of color, line, memory and imagination with each thread sewn or mark painted.
-Heidi Leitzke
Anthony Bannon, executive director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center wrote the following about Leitzke’s work. She “makes islands of fabric, stitchery of many colors, threads that become trees, and bushes upon dyed linen, with applied paint, tiny things, jewel ideas, self-contained, that favorite island of the mind.”
Art at Kings Oaks 