Heidi Lockwood

This interview was conducted with Heidi Lockwood at her home and studio in Hudson, New York on January 26, 2024. Heidi grew up in New York City in a middle-class family with a musical inclination; her father was a composer and taught at universities. Heidi describes spending summers on a family property in the Adirondacks, surrounded by extended family. She also discusses the folk music revival of the 1960s, telling how she, her sister, and their friends would often play music and sing together. Starting at age 14,Heidi began learning how to paint, and continued to receive art training throughout the following decades from various instructors she names in the interview, including Lennart Anderson and Domenic Cretara, at institutions including Brooklyn College and California State University, Long Beach. She notes that she was first interested in sculpture, but ultimately pursued painting due to the obstacles of being a woman in the male-dominated sculpture field. Heidi mentions raising her children in California, pursuing the profession of socialwork for a while, returning to painting, and eventually moving back to New YorkState to live in Ithaca alongside her daughter. She left Ithaca for Hudson after being unable to find support and community in the art scene of Ithaca. Since arriving in Hudson in 2012, Heidi has developed a relationship that she describes as central to her life here and has made some connections to the local art scene. She ends the interview with a reflection about being an elder and what she believes the role of elders should be in a functional society, and her wish to fulfill that role by mentoring and teaching younger people.    

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