Heather Hornberger: Finding Home

Finding Home, the newest collection of colorful swirling abstract paintings to come from local artist Heather Hornberger, will be on exhibit in the main gallery at Mulberry Art Studios for the month of April. The public is invited to meet the artist and view the artwork during a First Friday Opening Reception from 5pm until 8pm on April 1st. Mulberry Art Studios offers free parking in their private lot and is located in historic downtown Lancaster at 21 North Mulberry Street.

Heather Hornberger is a self taught artist who has been creating art ever since she was a child, growing up in Ephrata, PA. To Heather, making art is about being able to be in the moment, about presence, finding your center, your home. Heather explains, “I’ve moved to the middle of the ocean, living on the Big Island of Hawaii, I’ve moved south and lived near the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, and I’ve moved north, living among the 1000’s of acres of forest in the wilderness of the Adirondack Mountains. I’ve found that you can move around in search of home, to find your place of belonging, but home can really only be found inside of you. I believe the Divine resides inside of each of us and that art is an expression of our connection with the Divine, a place inside we can come home to at any time.”

Heather says she has spent a lot of her life running, looking for peace and a place where I feel home. And she has found a path in painting. “I’ve struggled with mental illness since my early 20’s,” Heather shares, “and have found that creating, painting especially for me, has been one of the greatest outlets. When my insides are swirling and I can’t seem to settle my thoughts I turn to the canvas and am able to express what I cannot put into words. Each piece is sort of a tangible expression of emotional alchemy- a way of coming home to what exists right now, in the present moment.” Heather enjoys seeing how the viewer interprets her paintings, what they see in the colors and textures and movement of the painting, what speaks to them. She finds that it can show where we overlap and how our life experiences color our perception of the world around us. “I hope that this exhibit challenges the viewer to explore how they connect with their Divinity, how they find home when the ground seems to be shifting or life gets overwhelming” says Heather. “For me, painting brings me home, no matter where in the world I am.”