The Miami Art Blog by Heike Dempster

I grew up in Miami but I was born in Chiclayo, Peru.

I love the weather. I like the tropical weather and the beaches. I like the Latin culture. It is different from the rest of the United States.

I think a lot of the colors. Especially pink. When you go to Peru, like Machu Picchu and the mountains, you see a lot of the patterns and the clothing the native people wear is hot pink and neon green.

I go visit my family but I have never gone to the tourist places so I am going to go next year.

I have not been to Asia. I want to travel to Japan and China. I want to go all over the world, little by little.

I have been painting since I was in elementary school

My art has always been feminine. I like a little bit of fantasy and whimsical details. Frida Kahlo inspired my work. I love how she is able to express emotions. I think my work is very feminine and it touches people’s emotions. I can express emotion very well. I also love fashion. Patterns and clothing and trends inspire my work, too.

Betsy Johnson is my favorite. I also like Stella McCartney, Michael Kors and Gwen Stefani.

About a year and a half ago. I have a lot of friends that do graffiti. They pushed me to do art on a wall. The first time I did it was at Cushy Gigs. I did a character there. Inside there are a lot of amazing artists, all women artists like Tatiana Suarez. I am very proud this was my first time I did a character. I like that street art brings happiness to the community. That is how I started loving it. I like to give my art to charities and do things that help others.

I think people. I watch people, sometimes my friends. Unconsciously I draw them or myself. When I draw realistically I use my friends as references or people that I like in magazines.

I like La Familia Sagrada in Barcelona, Spain. Antoni Gaudi‘s architecture is just beautiful. It is art. It is like Alice in Wonderland. It is so magical.

(laughs) It is usually about me and how I feel. It comes out in my art. It is very hard to hide it. It comes out without me thinking. Sometimes, if it is for a client, if I am feeling mad or sad, I have to make sure that it doesn’t look like that even though that’s how I feel. I adjust it for a client but when it’s for myself I just let it flow.

The story of Queen Isabella is that when Christopher Columbus was coming to America he came to the King to ask for funds for the trip and she was going to pawn her jewels. That is where the story of the pawn show and Isabella came together. The mural is half finished. They want me to do the whole building so I will add more to the story. In the mural Queen Isabella wants to finance her dreams cause when you go to the pawn shop you can trade something for funds to pay for education or travel or business. Out of her hands jewels will come out and maybe images of dreams and the ship of Christopher Columbus. It will go all around the building.

I did a little mural in New York. I wanted to do another one this summer but I was too busy and I am a teacher so I have to start work in two weeks. Usually, in the summer, I love to travel. I want to travel and paint in California and New York and Puerto Rico.

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I love to travel. I love culture and people. I went to India two years ago. All the colors and the people were so beautiful. I went to school in Italy. All of that really influenced me.

I definitely want to do installation. I am working on an idea with movies and mural making. Film and installation.

Yes that is something that I loved growing up in the 80s. I love “My Little Pony.” It was just something fun I wanted to try. I did a collection of ponies before for a pop art show. I also did ponies in a mural in the Bird Road Art District. It is fun. Two giant “My little Ponies.”

I have one in Pembroke Pines called “About Face” curated by Jill Slaughter in October. Barbara M De Varona is going to be there, too. It is a group show and it is all about portraits.