Ms. Held's Artwork

From a very early age Ms. Held loved to draw, paint and sculpt. She even made little clay animal sculptures in elementary school and sold them for .25 cents each to her classmates. As an adult Ms. Held has come to consider herself as a mix-media conceptual artist. This means her artwork is inspired first by an idea (concept) and then she decides which media/material(s) will best express her ideas. Ms. Held's artistic passions include watercolor painting combined with ink drawings, photography, ceramic sculpture and pottery, and installation art. 

Pottery, 2016

Ms. Held spent much of her 20s living and traveling abroad. She uses her camera to capture to cultural and natural beauty of the places she explores: 

"Guatemalan Boys", Lago Atitlan, Guatemala, 2000 

"Island Girls", Zanzibar Island, Tanzania, 1995



"Fetching Water", Ondangwa, Namibia, 1994

"Young Girls", Zanzibar Island, Tanzania, 1995

"Green & White", Mozambique, 2001 

 "Sugar of Namibia", Ondangwa, Namibia, 1994

"Mother and Child", Zanzibar Island, Tanzania, 1995 

"Animal Hybrid Pond" (gift for Ms. Held's nephew), ink & watercolor paints, 2006

"Baby Ox Bank" (gift for a friend's first born son), stoneware clay and glaze, 2009 

Body made on the pottery wheel, head and other details are hand-built

“The Fall”, December 2002, pine wood, color contact prints, organic soil 

            The double spiral is an ancient year symbol that reverses direction from winter to summer. The spirals set before you are a symbol of the processes of life, death and rebirth that occur over the course of the four seasons. A tree bud blossoms in the spring, green and full of life. Its leaf grows and matures, eventually giving way to the fire-like colors of the fall season. As time passes the leaf will wilt and fall to the ground, leaving the branch bare against a cobalt blue winter sky. Each of the 365 domino pieces (covered with a small photograph of a tree from the different seasons) represents a single day in the passing of time. Each piece is touching the next, reminding us that our lives are made up of a series of intimately connected moments…moments that push us forward and inevitably lead us to change and growth, life and death, and always rebirth.