Artist Highlight Transcript: Heather Sutherland

This is a transcript of an interview with my dear friend Heather Sutherland, whose work you can find on her website and on Instagram @hdollarsymbol.
Read the article here.

Sophia Mitropoulos
We're kind of gonna jump around, which is totally fine. But let's actually start with how you would like to introduce yourself.

Heather Sutherland
I'm Heather Sutherland, aka H$. I consider myself a glass artist versus a glass blower. I don't typically use glass in every day of my practice, but I consider the thought process of thinking about glass in my process. I'm a lover of music, a lover of friends and family, dope beats, twerks.

Sophia Mitropoulos
As far as your background, how did you get to where you are right now? Like, were you always an artist? Did you always want to be an artist? How did you get into glass and that kind of path?

Heather Sutherland
Well, as I was growing up, I had three things on my mind. I wanted to be a geologist, I wanted to be a hairdresser, and I would be an artist. And upon upon reflection of that, at the age I am now and where I am, I'm like, well actually I nailed it. So I feel pretty confident I took the path that I was thinking of when I was younger, but the path wasn't easy, and it's still not easy. I have dyslexia and some, you know, a few learning disabilities. So my path through school was very all over the place. It took me probably like 14 years or something crazy to finish school. But I did. You know, I ended up going to grad school, which no one thought that was gonna happen. So, at least I did that. But when I found glass was at a pretty dark time. I feel like it's a similar origin story to a lot of glass artists, I guess. You know, I was kind of always searching for something to help give me some sort of path. or some sort of like, what's the word I'm looking for?

SM
Like a trajectory?

HS
Yeah, a trajectory, or like even like a- I needed- not military, but you know how if you join the military, they give you kind of like this routine and you have certain things. I think I was always hoping to find something like that.

SM
Like a regimented program.

HS
Yeah, I think so, you know. Right before glass, I was definitely this little festival rat and I was just doing things too crazy. And then when I found it, it gave me a direction. It gave me purpose, I started to look at things in a different direction. And when I started to do glass, it really gave me this sense of life lessons that I didn't really pick up on as I was going through life. Because the repercussions of like, you're not paying attention, or you're moving too slow, was very actively and visually there right on the end of that blow pipe. And it also gave me this meditation that I wasn't able to have anywhere else. So it makes you live in the present. And sometimes, you know, in my head and I'm sure other people feel the same, you don't have that sense of being in the present. So it's nice for something like that, to give you the opportunity to kind of block everything out and be in the present. So that's when I became really obsessed with it because I started seeing more to it than just the objects. And at this point, I'm not someone who is very good at marketing myself or selling work, or even like getting it out there like I should. Because I guess I get so wrapped up in that whole 'I'm a, I'm a process junkie,' I really enjoy the process and it's more for myself and for my mental health a lot of times, than it is for the end of the process. I often feel lackluster and sad when the object is done because that process is over. I think that's why I stem into occasionally doing a lot of performative artwork is because it is more based on the activation in the process versus the objects. At the end of the day, you know, I give more glass away than I do sell it.

SM
Did you learn in school or was there a mentor that kind of guided you? How did you end up in a hot shop?

HS
Basically I was about to fail out of college because of my Spanish.

SM
Because your Spanish wasn't good?

HS
Yeah, I kept failing my Spanish class had only had like a couple of opportunities to do that. So I ended up going to community college at Tidewater Community College. And my mom helped project that for me because she was like "Oh, hey, look, they have a glassblowing program there." I touched and go with some glassblowing, I had gotten a torch kit a while back. That ended up, through a shitty break up, this guy ended up selling it. And anyway, I kind of was gravitating towards that idea. And then once my mom said it was there, I was like, "Oh shit, hell yeah." So I went there. And I realized I fucking loved it. So I ended up becoming a studio rat and then taking all these courses at the community college with which which would help project me forward so that I could take the classes with a Pell Grant. So continue to finish my degree. So I ended up getting like two and a half years in there with that. This guy, Edward Francis was basically my mentor and he helped push me towards the goal. And then after I was going through that program, I was there so much, and not making any money. I was just like, a studio rat. I did my Spanish, but like man, I was, I was in that studio as much as possible. So he ended up giving me a job and I became a studio tech there. And once I became studio tech, the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio opened, and from there I was like one of the very first assistants. And then that pushed me further forward into the tutorship of Charlotte Potter and Robin Rogers, and they're the ones who kind of got me excited and to apply to Pilchuck.

SM
Oh, cool.

Heather Sutherland
And then once I got to Pilchuck, all bets are over.

SM
That's right.

HS
All bets were fucking over. Yeah. So from my first mentor, Ed Francis, it was like, oh, object base, I was just learning, you know, the basics. And then when I got to the Chrysler, we were taught about performative based work and that started to inspire me more. You have to have the basis, but that really started to speak more to my artistic practice and how that I could find the voice in the material. Because before I was just making these cups and they felt lackluster because I wasn't having an artistic practice. So Charlotte Potter and Robin Rogers really taught me how to embrace the glass and maybe, maybe I wasn't like, perfect at it but there's another way I could, like, shine through. And then when you know you go to Pilchuck, I mean you just absorb so many people and so many techniques and everything. So you find your path. And yeah, that's, that's really kind of the origin story of my love affair with the glass.

SM
Well, first of all, if people end up listening to this for people listening, we met at Pilchuck, which is just some background info for them. But tell me about what your first performance was and all the stories at the Chrysler because I know you did some really interesting performance pieces that kind of addressed femininity and women in the hot shop and that kind of thing.

HS
Yeah, so my very first, performance was just a basic demo piece I was doing. But the demo piece came at a certain point of this, celebration of the first glass conference by Harvey Littleton. Which was important to me because it was like the first time, at least in American glass history, that a woman was included in the making process of glass. And I'm sure I know that there were other designers across countries and, and people being involved. But to me that was a big point in time. It was like the beginning of how women were being involved. And so my performance was basically on the day of that conference. And I thought it was really interesting, because like, I was making a stiletto heel that was like, the whole purpose is like, I wanted to make this stiletto heel. Something like that. The women, for the past few years, we've been getting more and more involved in this process. And I felt that there is often a time where we had to hide our femininity in the shop and be more aggressive and we perform more masculine because we needed to- we want it to be like "professional." And I was like, dude, I can do everything you and I can do it in a dress and heels. So that's basically what me and a group of women did. We made this object, we wore, to their comfort, heels. I were some kitten stiletto heels and everyone else had their variety of what heels meant to them. And then everybody had either black or red dress on and we all have makeup on. And we nailed it, it was so freaking cool. And to me it was like this little poke, I can do whatever you do, but I'm going to do it in a dressing field and I'm still going to be a badass while I do it. It doesn't mean I have to like, in some instances, like hide that identity to me. And I felt like that performance was very stimulating to me and my artistic practice. It was like at the very beginning of it. Before I went to grad school, and I don't know, it was very powerful. And that's how I feel like the performances thus after were to me, they were very powerful, not just for someone to observe, but they were like these moments for me to deal with my own ideas and my own things that were going on in my world.

SM
Yeah, totally. Well, I think so. I mean, glass is still a pretty male dominated field, would you say?

HS
I would say, I feel like this path at this point right now, I think that's not necessarily 100% true. I feel like it's coming with a force. At least from the East Coast, I know for a fact like a lot of women are heads of the departments and I meet a lot of women glassblowers that are, you know, in the field now and I would say like, maybe when I did that performance, Back then I would probably tell you, yes, there is a male dominant field. But I think things are progressing to be honest. I have I have a very positive outlook for the future of it. And I don't want it to be mis-balanced either. But I feel like, you know, right now, the scales are balancing out a little bit, at least for what I've seen.

SM
When was that performance?

HS
Maybe like 2011/2012. So a few years ago, and I felt that at that point. A lot of times I felt I was only a like female on the floor. But I guess also, Charlotte Potter also fostered this community where we did have a lot more females in our studio than most males actually. And I don't know if that was purposeful or unpurposeful, I couldn't tell you. I think that everybody has so much extreme talent. I wouldn't say it was, on purpose, it just so happened, like, community of women started to be fostered there.

SM
Do you think that place specifically influenced your work and how it grew beyond just the performance but being in that kind of space at that point in time?

HS
Yeah, I definitely think so. And I think I was always interested in like sexuality and gender, but I feel that seeing it in the studios, and being around people with that conversation continuously being talked about, definitely helped me think about those things for sure.

SM
And then so your performances after that, you had a couple more big ones, right? You had the one where you walked on glass, and then you had a punching one?

HS
Yeah. The first one was the punching.

SM
Which for reference was molten glass, right? So what's the temperature of that?

HS
When it comes out it starts at 2150 degrees once you pull it out of the furnace. So I was probably smacking around, I would say 2000 degrees, because I wanted it super molten. I did the whole performance seven times. I wanted to get it just right. And that piece was actually extremely awesome for my mental health. I had been sexually abused when I was really young, I'd say around the four or five year old range. And I had always had this like, in the back of my mind and like, my identity and how I navigated through relationships. It always affected me and I didn't really tell my mom even until I was 21 or 22 years old that it happened. But I could still relive it all the time. And so for me, this piece was this thing where I had always seen class as a therapist, because like I told you before, it taught me how to live in the present. I didn't actually have a physical conversation, but I had a 'physical conversation' with the class. And through that whole situation, I had been thinking about pain because I'm always able to digest physical pain really easily. But emotional pain for me is always something that just sticks around with me and like, it just festers inside of me. But the thing about it is physical pain has a beginning and an end. And that's a fact. It's like when you have a wound, it's an open wound. You have a week or two weeks, the wound heals and then it's pretty much over. And the emotional side was never easy because there's no actual beginning in it. There's a beginning. There's end, there's no foreseeable end. There's no physicality of it saying, 'I'm going to be healed in this amount of time.' So that was where I was going with this with this piece, because I was thinking, the glass has done so much for me, I want to see if this will help me digest this emotional. Because when I was going through therapy, what they told me to do at one point is to write the name of the guy who molested me on the bottom and then go for a run. And then I would be more powerful because I'd be stepping on him. And so I have this mantra, like, 'you don't have me, I'm on top of you, I am squashing this.' And take that a step further, that's what I did with the glass. So the first few pieces were just me getting acquainted with the physicality of the punching and everything. Slowly, we started to add more and more gathers, so more and more glass to the piece to make it larger and larger. And the last piece, Tyler Gordon, who's my ex partner now, he wrote the name out. David is his name. He wrote the name out. And I had gone through the process six times before and I thought I was ready for this, you know, like, I took a lot of energy out on it. And then he picked up the name, he covered it in glass, and then on the last gather when he pulled it out, all of the emotion just came streaming out of my body. Granted, I don't know how to throw a punch. I'm not a physical fighter. So for me, punching ended up being more of where I hurt myself in the actual pain of the burn. Afterwards. I was going through so much. I was crying and I, I don't know, it allowed me to release this energy inside of me that had been pent up inside of there. To feel the pain physically versus holding it in emotionally really released a lot of that shit that was inside my fucking body and just festering inside. And then I like before I had timidly talked about this piece right? Before I hadn't really felt comfortable around people talking about it, but once I made this piece, it just opened it up for me. I no longer felt shame about it. I still can relive the moments, but I'm no longer imprisoned by it anymore. And because I can speak out about it. I feel so much better. Personally, I don't think everybody needs to go through this or everybody would feel the same way. But for me that's what activated this feeling inside of me, this comfortability with what happened in my past. So it was probably my favorite piece I ever did. Not necessarily for the photo or the artwork, but definitely for my mental health.

SM
That's awesome. That gave me chills, first of all. I mean, I think I had seen the photos of the piece, but I hadn't heard you speak about it. But I think even the photo translates some degree of that catharsis that, that release. And it's just so interesting to hear how the background of the piece kind of informed what later became the photo. Maybe not the whole story itself, but you're able to infer that kind of relationship with the glass and you going through it from the photos and I think that's just an awesome successful just all around great piece.

HS
Yeah I was really fortunate to have two amazing photographers, Stephanie Lipschitz, who did the final photos. When I got into New Glass Review Magazine for. And Erica Herrera was also there to capture those moments. Then my best, my best little undergrad- watch out for her, she's amazing- Susie Peterson was there to support me and then Tyler Gordon was also there to help me through that project. And I felt really supported when I was there, going through that.

SM
And that was at the Chrysler as well?

HS
That was actually in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin Madison. So it wasn't like I was in front of a large group of people, it was very intimate. It was just the five of us all together, which was nice because I wouldn't mind at this point showing those raw emotions to people, but I think with that initial confrontation that I was having with these emotions, I definitely wanted to be in a space with just like an intimate view of people because like, there was some whaling going on and some raw shit coming out. At this point in my life, after going through that, I don't have a problem showing that side of myself to everyone.

SM
But your work has evolved a bit since then, right? Would you say?

HS
Yeah. Things kind of ebb and flow for sure. I have a few different thoughts and processes that I like to make work with. Right now I'm just trying to navigate a space where somehow I can make work to have shown in a gallery. But I still enjoy the performance pieces and those emotional raw pieces. I don't necessarily make them so much like that anymore. I would say, things are more subjective now. They're maybe drawn out of certain emotions, but they might come out to audience as something totally different. My inspiration often is held to myself so that I can have more of the audience can put their own perception and their own voice into the work. There's still concept there, but I don't think it was as easily seen, because I was making these, like really, as pristine as my hands would make them objects. I was thinking about this, idea of luxury. And how, it's actually like the luxury I have to be an artist, the privilege that I have to be an artist, and then this faux idea of that. I have the privilege and support to be an artist to be a glass person, but then actually, I'm struggling all the time and I never know when I'm going to have work. So it's a privilege but also it's a lot to work towards. It's a privilege to work with material, because it's so expensive, but at the same time, there's this other idea about it. I was focused on that and then I really got focused on the idea of lipstick. Someone was telling me one time, I heard this story about how someone go catfished because, the girl was wearing so much makeup, and then the next day, he woke up she didn't have makeup on and she was 'not that same person,' but she is exactly that same person. So this idea of covering up was really interesting to me, and that's when I started gravitate to the lipsticks and the cosmetics. I don't think it's a covering up I think it's like you're just accentuating what you already have. I've always been attracted to that stuff, but I never felt like, I don't know why I want to use the word deserve, but I never felt like I could wear it, you know,

SM
It didn't feel fancy enough for the days, your days weren't fancy enough?

HS
Yeah I was, I don't know what it was, I really just started to focus in on just the objectness of it and then I thought it was pretty funny because if you kind of look at it lipstick and look at a vibrator. Like those little bullet vibrators, they're similar shapes and so I thought that spoke a certain language about sexuality, as well as gender. And then I was like, you know, like, this lipstick is not meant for a certain section of people. Everybody can enjoy this! You don't have to put it on to enjoy it, but it's just a beautiful object. The way the curve is at the top of the lipstick, the shape of the case itself. Like there's a lot of time spent on making the objects be beautiful and you put it on your face. So I started to gravitate towards making those lipsticks.

SM
And you're making them large scale as well, right?

HS
Yeah, so I always thought that was really funny, too. I was trying to max it out as big as I could. I think the largest one I made was 20 inches long, maybe a little bit longer than that. It was, for my ability, it felt like it was at least you know, maybe it was like, like, 20 but kind of like a fish story. You know? Yeah, I'll have to go measure it, make sure I'm telling you the right thing. But yeah, I thought it was interesting as well like the process of how I was making it wasn't intuitive to wearing makeup. Like, I'm sweating, I'm getting burned, my clothes are tattered, I'm getting smoke in the face. Here I am making this object of luxury that someone would- in my eyes when I'm stereotypically thinking about that- would have long nails on and living a life of leisure. And here I am spending all this time in hot shop making it really large and big. And also at the same time, I'm a woman, especially what I was going through that time, I was thinking like, 'oh, man, it's so funny that I'm making like lipstick, with a few gentlemen.' I have mainly female team, but I had a few guys on the team, and so funny to make a hyper feminine object in the hot shop that I felt had this dualistic thing going on just for me. A little It's just for me. I'm making something feminine in the hot shop where typically, you make retichello and these technically pristine objects that are in my eyes at that point really masculine, and here I am just like cleaning out lipsticks, you know, and I always thought that was pretty important to the piece but not something that I would attach to the necessarily. People who knew about it would understand that little bit of the punch.

SM
Well and I think that's something particularly interesting, I remember having a conversation with you about how all these big strong men come into the hot shop and they make these tiny, delicate, perfect little goblets.

HS
Yeah, they're like, super skinny and perfect.

SM
For people who don't know what hot shop is like and what the culture of the team working environment, can you explain what it's like for you to not only recruit people to help you make that piece, but also to be making something so big. And how that changes the process for you?

HS
Well, it's not as it's not as heavy as what your listeners can probably lift.

SM
But it's totally a different kind of strength.

HS
It's different way of holding on to something and I think that, you know, if you out there, it's, it's pretty interesting. Yeah, so like the physicality of it is so intense because not only are you lifting a heavy object, there's a timeframe.

SM
And you're spinning it. You're keeping it on rotation

HS
Constantly rotating. So like basically, your, your wrists and your fingers and your hands are just getting a workout. Definitely your forearms are like getting shredded. Like if you ever see Nancy Callan's forearms, she's ripped as shit

SM
She really is. She's got the glory forearms for sure.

HS
Yeah, totally. And then also like the center of gravity. So like you have your iron, the blow pipe, and then you have this wad of glass on it. It's not like when you get this object when it's cold and you hold it, you're like, Oh, this was only a few pounds, but when it's off the end of a rod and it's misbalanced because you only have one side of it that's heavy, and you have to rotate it and it's hot as shit. And then you have to also be thinking about 'What's my next step? Where's everyone on the floor? What do I need to ask for?' There's a lot of in the moment things happening so quickly, but also so slowly. You have to be intuitive and anticipatory, to ensure that piece goes well. And you have to be very thoughtful for your team. Because at least the way I had experienced a lot of my assisting is a lot of times I'd be in a shop in someone would be so aggressive when asking for something. So like, when I'm in a hot shop, I try to be very calm, and very thoughtful, no matter how they try, if they screw up or not. And if they screw up, you have to just be like, 'Oh, well,' there's nothing you can do about the past. It's just happening now. So let's fix it and let's not worry about being upset with the person, we'll just talk about it later and everything is fine. So there's all these intense moments going on there. And then you're also turning the pipe, shaping the object at 2000 to let's say 1500 degrees. At its coldest it's probably 1000 degrees. And that's so exciting and also it's awesome to like learn how to stay level headed under pressure as well. But yeah, I think I couldn't tell you what the actual weight is, when you're having some kind of piece that's like five gathers, but it's, it's pretty significant because you don't want to hold it out from your body. You know, you don't want to have your arms extended, you want to pull it straight towards your center of your body. And I think that's why some of us women might have a little bit more of an advantage at times because we actually have hips, some of us do. And you can really just push it into your hips. What I learned is I like mainly I'm using my legs at that point, and you want something that's lower, at least for my height, so that I can just take it from the yoke, which is right in front of the glory hole, which is the object will just consistently do a dance between the glory hole (reheating chamber) in the bench. So that's another factor you have to do, right. So not only do you have to keep this object turning, we have to keep it hot, because once you pull it out of the furnace at 2150, you then have to play this game of just keeping it hot and malleable. If you're not keeping it malleable, you have to keep it at least warm so that it won't break.

SM
Right. And because every time you touch it with your tools, your tools are cooling it down.

HS
Tools are just buckets of ice. Everything you put on it is just like a block of ice in some capacity. And that's basically what you're doing when you manipulate it. You're shaping it, but you're also controlling where the object is gonna blow in and blow out. So, you want it to be cold so that you can control the bubble from going completely out of the glass and blowing a hole through it. So there's all of this stuff being balanced all at the same time. A lot of times when I make a larger object, I like have a larger team. So that means everyone can think more specifically on one job versus having to multitask. Because once you have something hot on there, you don't want to be thinking about, 'Oh, this is hot, and then I have these 10 jobs to do,' Once it's at a certain capacity, you want to have one person doing one job at a time so that we're all level-headed and we're know very specifically what we're doing now. When I was making my larger objects, I had a team with myself and three other people and we all had very specific jobs. And a lot of times I would give the weight of the pipe to my friend Anna Lenear and she would take the heat for me, so she would do all the heavy lifting. So her brain could only focus on that back and forth. And for me, I could just focus on shaping the bubble and controlling where the bubble blows out. And then I had someone else in charge of blowing while I instructed them, and then I had another person keeping the piece warm at times when I needed one thing hot and one thing cool. And that's probably my favorite time making glass at that those moments. It's a teamwork because it's a real community. What I think is really awesome about that is you don't have to like everyone, but you do have to love everyone. You have to have compassion and I think it's really cool. Like, I have moments where I may not have gotten along with someone politically, but when we're in the hot shop together, we are on the same page. We have jokes, and we have a great time. And I love them. I love them.

SM
It's also an especially unique experience to have somebody help you make your piece. In most other art spaces, it's very rare to find that kind of community, where it's like, 'Hey, I'm gonna borrow these five people, and we're all going to work together as if it was each of our pieces. But together, we're fabricating one piece for one artist.'

HS
Yeah. I think it's awesome. There's a lot of artists out there that use other artists' hands to make their work, especially in the glassblowing field. But when I'm with my team of people or I'm making something with a group of people, I like to be like 'this is our piece,' even though I am what's considered the gaffer, so the person who designed and most time puts the moves on it, I still consider it all of our piece because we're constructing it together. I definitely have been in situations where someone gives me a really great idea in the moment and I took that consideration when I'm making my piece and I definitely consider it our piece together. Oftentimes, I wouldn't say I'm always on top of doing this, but especially if I do a show, like my thesis show, I put everyone's name on it. I couldn't make this piece without these people. I think like that's important for some people to understand. I feel like great artwork is not necessarily just made by one great person, it's like a million hands that are lending to this person's idea. The idea can be one thing, but the handedness of it can be made by other people, and together it's this whole collaboration, even though it's one person's idea.

SM
Yeah, totally. That's awesome. The other piece I really wanted to hear you talk a little bit about is the disco clit.

HS
Oh, yes! Titled: The Revolution of Self Exploration.

SM
I love it. And I love that piece, particularly because I always show it to people and they're like, 'Oh, shit, I didn't know it looked like that.'

HS
Exactly. Neither did I. I was like 35 when I really fucking figured out like what a clit was. I know that sounds ridiculous. I mean, I had an orgasm before but I didn't know what one was or the purpose. I feel like in sex education, they talk about a male penis. talk about it ejaculating, and then somehow like it's sperm in the egg, but they don't tell us any of the other parts. It's like they want to hide it. I think that's ridiculous. And like why didn't we know? Well, not everyone, but from my education, I didn't know what one of those things looked like. And guess what? It looks exactly like a fucking penis. You know it's an innie and they're an outtie. Okay, like, that makes it more equal, so, shut the fuck up. It was like this idea or like, also, I had always felt shameful about masturbation before. I had tried it on myself. I was just like, 'Oh, this isn't working.' And then through some exploration, I got a vibrator, and then I was like, 'How does this work?' And then I finally found one that made me orgasm and I was like, 'Holy shit, I can do this on my own!' There's a power to that, if you think about it. And that's why I felt like they don't want us to know about this because there's a power in the female orgasm. We don't need someone to do it for us, we can do on our own. And there's a reason why they try to take that away from us in some sort of like control. When I when I had this realization I was like, I want everybody to know what this thing looks like. And I think it was on the verge of people 3D modeling them, and having a little bit more out in media. And then I was able to take that and make it into this object. And I was like, let's not hide it anymore, let's celebrate it, let's make it into disco ball and celebrate the underneath of it. How awesome is this? It's just a sensory of pleasure. Like this is just for pleasure. I think that's awesome.

SM
So how did that piece get fabricated?

HS
So that was made with my ex partner Tyler Gordon as well. We had spoken about the piece. I was getting ready for this performance he and I were doing at the Third Thursday at Chrysler Glass Studio. We wanted to make this piece for that performance, but a lot of things were happening that summer and we weren’t able to get it done. After that, we started to talk about it more and I was like ‘I still want this piece.’ And we kind of got it started that summer. So first he uploaded this 3D modeling of it and we worked together taking that 3D model and making it into a larger object that’s made out of a metal armature that’s in the center, foam that’s been cut in layers and sanded down, and then after that it’s covered in fabric that’s been dipped in wood glue. That’s on the outside. We worked together a lot through that process. He did the metal fabrication and the cut of everything and because I love sanding stuff I took over and started sanding. The thing that took the most time is putting the mirror on it. I was the Emerging Artist in Residence Coordinator for that upcoming fall, we had just moved to Washington at that point so I was kind of in this limbo land and they let me be a coordinator for this time with some really amazing artists. I needed a project where I would be able to work on it for a long period of time but then put it down as immediately as somebody needed something. It was really awesome because during this time I didn’t have any money but I found all of this 1/8” mirror and so I decided to cut down all the mirrored pieces you see are hand cut and hand placed by me. And that was really great, it allowed me the space of meditation again, which I needed. So I basically scored everything like a Hershey bar and then I snapped it all into these little 1/8” x 1/8” pieces of mirror so that in itself took a giant amount of my time. After that, I laid down construction caulk and I just placed each one, one by one on the object. It was super dirty.

SM
That’s awesome. And that was up at Pilchuck?

HS
Yeah, that was up at Pilchuck. I finished the piece eventually at my home in Mount Vernon, Washington. I think the longest process was actually cleaning the caulk off my clit, which I thought was really funny. The caulk was all over it! I was like ‘It’s just so sticky.’

SM
It’s just so perfect. I love it, that’s awesome. Heather, I think this whole thing has just been delightful, I’m so excited to share your story with people.

HS
You’re so kind, thank you for thinking of me and being so positive. I’m having a hard time right now so it feels nice to have someone listen about the stuff I like the most.

SM
Oh, yes. I feel like your work specifically is just something I’m so excited to share, and I feel like this conversation is really going to resonate with the people that are following the magazine and it's the kind of thing where I know they’re gonna like it and I know they’re not gonna know what hit them.

HS
Well, thank you, that means the world to me. I feel so elated and, I don’t know, this hit me at this point right now, so I really appreciate you taking the time to appreciate me like that. It feels so good.

SM
And where can they find you on the internet?

HS
Either at https://hsutherland.com, which I need to work on that website some more so bare with me, or @hdollarsymbol on Instagram. And feel free to always reach out, I’m always down to talk to new people about things.

SM
Awesome, thank you so much for taking your time and for talking about your work. I really appreciate it and I think it was all beautiful and I can’t wait to share.

HS
Thank you so much, I hope you have a really beautiful day.

SM
You too, alright, bye!

HS
Bye!