Spotlight on Heather Vaillancourt, NAP Participant

Jack Vaillancourt works as a plumbing inspector for the City of Manchester’s Planning Department. After hearing about the opportunity for employees and their immediate family members to enter the 7th Annual NAP Exhibition, he immediately thought of his granddaughter Heather and her artistic talents. With the opportunity to participate in this free exhibition, Jack strongly encouraged Heather to enter her piece entitled “Lost at Sea” in the teen category. Their encouragement paid off as the mixed media piece not only caught the eyes of visitors to the exhibition, but the judges as well who presented her with a Best of Show award at this year’s event.

 

Heather, who has only entered her work in one other NAP exhibition in 2011, was completely overwhelmed with the response her piece received commenting that, “I'm so appreciative and flattered that people liked my piece as much as they did. I've never had that kind of recognition and I'm just so happy that people enjoyed my art!”

 

With such a unique creation, we asked Heather what inspired her to create her award winning piece. Heather responded in true artist fashion stating, “I don't know! When I make art of any kind, I never plan it out. I like for the end result to be a surprise, even to me!” Even with the element of surprise, she does credit her love of Johnny Depp and pirates including the Pirates of the Caribbean movies for the nautical influence on her winning piece.

 

Heathers creativity reaches further than just entering her artwork in the NAP exhibition.  She has started her own shop on Etsy called TwoHappyHippies where she and her boyfriend sell handmade crafts including jewelry.  You can check out their creations here.

 

While Heather is unsure of what the future holds for her, she is positive that the arts will always be a big part of her life just like they always have been.