Heather M. Morris is a Boston based classically trained painter with a Master’s degree in Art Therapy from Lesley University. Originally from Pennsylvania, she rigorously trained in portraiture under the tutelage of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts professor, Ted Xaras, while pursuing degrees in psychology and art at Ursinus College. She later shifted her career to art directing film and painting theatrical sets.
With a passion for exploring characterizations and environments, she has concentrated on dissecting the modern mythology established by contemporary cult television and film. Applying painting techniques and chemical processes learned through her scenic art background, she attempts to capture a character’s essence through both likeness and texture. She particularly enjoys painting “gunslingers and funslingers” — heroes who walk an ambiguous moral line— using rust, grit, and a variety of distressed materials to make her paintings live in a character’s world. Her work has been featured in HBO’s Game of Thrones promotional video “Long Story Short”, on Comedy Central’s “@Midnight”, and at The Critics’ Choice Television Awards.
Currently, Heather is the Assistant Scenic Charge Artist at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University and her painting credits include the Tony Award winning musicals “Pippin”, “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess”, and “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812”, as well as the Broadway revival of “The Glass Menagerie”, the Boston premiere of “All the Way”, Teller’s rendition of “The Tempest”, the Broadway musicals “Finding Neverland”, “Waitress”, and “Jagged Little Pill.”