Gulfport multimedia artist and comedian Cindy Heidel’s artwork is on display in the Frances Purdy Friends Room at the Gulfport Public Library through July 31. The exhibit, titled Two Unique Perspectives of Consciousness, also includes oil paintings by Tony Treadway.
Heidel’s exhibit features a wooden headboard as the backdrop for 17 small black and white images of children parenting each other as a way to explore and better understand her relationship with her family, particularly her mother. Continuing the family theme, her nieces and nephews were the models for the photographs.
“The smallness of the images was unconsciously meant to draw you closer to the private nature of the subject matter,” says Heidel. “The colorful frames represent what was presented to the outside world.”
Heidel, who has struggled with scoliosis since she was a child, credits art and comedy with helping her survive some difficult challenges.
“I create because it makes life real,” she says. “Life has always been a struggle for me. I believe in little and question everything. Yet I have faith in the process of life. When I see a photograph that I’ve shot or a painting I’ve done, it makes life real.”
