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A Community for Collaboration
When Heather Lewis was a freshman in high
school, she was envious of the students in photography class who had the
freedom to roam the campus. That envy ended up turning into one of her greatest
passions.
After completing her art studies at schools
around the Southeastern United States, Lewis moved out to Southern California
to pursue her art career.
After years in the arts, Lewis, a Southern
girl at heart, decided to move back to the Research Triangle area where she
currently works in development for Carolina.
Lewis found that while being in a college town
provides for a unique cultural experience, what Chapel Hill lacked was a
community of photographers to inspire creation. When friends reached out to
create that community, she jumped at the opportunity. In 2016, she helped found
Mother
F Stop.
“Mother F Stop started with a group of three
women who have become moms since being in grad school together. It’s now the
biggest focus of our life, so the name itself is a play on words,” Lewis said,
“while also referencing a term in photography.”
Mother F Stop, which was originally intended
to be a blog, was born to reproduce a community of artists, photographers and
people to share and discover new things, moments and experiences. The community
became more than just a resource, but a place to inspire creation.
Lewis speaks very candidly about what inspires
her work.
“My work since grad school has been about
nostalgia, and I like to use the word ‘hireath’ to describe it, which is a
Welsh word meaning a longing for home,” Lewis continued, “but recently much of
the work has been about the grieving process. My fiancé, Daniel, unexpectedly
passed away about four years ago. He literally was here one day, and not the
next. I felt I really couldn’t explain myself to people because I was trying to
map out life without the person I was mapping out life with. I started reading
works by C.S. Lewis and Cheryl Strayed, and their words really resonated with
me and through reading I was able to visualize my next art pieces.”
Lewis ended up stripping down Daniel’s
clothes, notebooks and med school books, and repurposing them into art that she
now proudly displays in various galleries. Being vulnerable through her work
allows her to connect more deeply with her viewers and help people understand
grief.
“I’d hang Daniel’s belongings in their new
forms in a gallery and inevitably there would be a person who would come up and
say ‘I get this,’ ‘I understand this,’ and ‘I needed to know someone else out
there felt the same way as I did,’” she said.
For Carolina’s third annual Arts Everywhere
Day, Mother F Stop is holding its first photography exhibit, “Inaugural”. This
exhibit features work from photographers who were highlighted in the blog’s
first year. On view are photographers representing 5 different countries and 13
states. The exhibit will be located
within the SAMple Gallery on the second floor of Hanes Art Center from April
1st through April 12th.
“Each year, Arts Everywhere Day is a way for
us to celebrate the power of the arts to bring people together across
disciplines, interests and backgrounds. Heather’s exhibit “Inaugural” is a
clear example that the arts are for everyone. She is a Carolina staff member
bringing works by artists from around the world to students in Chapel Hill.
It’s a win-win-win for the Carolina community,” said Kathryn Stewart, associate
director of Arts Everywhere.
Lewis said she is really excited to have the
exhibition on Carolina’s campus and to be a part of Arts Everywhere. “If you’re
not going to art galleries as a student, you aren’t going to be exposed to the
documentaries people are shooting, different processes people are experimenting
with, or art trends currently happening. I’m glad our Carolina students are
getting this exposure.”
Arts Everywhere collaborates with diverse partners to embed the arts into daily life at Carolina through creative and cutting-edge programs that promote artistic expression, live arts experiences, and learning through the arts.
