Heidi Pitre currently resides in Austin, but claims most of the South as home, and it is that South which seems to always seep its way into her work. It is provocative but gentle, connecting us to personal memories through intimate and nostalgic amusement. She has the ability to strike a chord in people, giving them permission to laugh at a memory. Whether it’s a bad hair day or a bad marriage, with time, edges can be softened into warm recollections.Her work is a collection of short stories, sharing messages from the perspective of different people who understand what it means to be a floundering mother, an awkward daughter, an exhausted housewife, a scorned lover, someone who has been through hell and back. Her characters prove that everyone can embrace their own realities, laugh at tragedies, spotlight bad decisions, expose vulnerabilities, and choose to exchange pain or sadness for a new understanding of the past.She is a Pollock Krasner Grant recipient, a Mississippi Arts Commission Fellowship recipient, as well as the awardee of many more additional grants, residencies, and scholarships. She has participated in numerous solo and group shows in Telluride, Austin, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and others.

The South. It’s not like anywhere else. It’s not even like itself. The heat is glorious, but overbearing. The food is delicious and deadly. Its people can be painfully lovely, or painfully vicious. If you know the South well, you love it and you hate it, but you can’t shake it. You can leave it, but it doesn’t leave you. It’s a way of life, and an odd way of living. Some might even say a peculiar way of living. These works examine the South and its people, in all their peculiar wonder. Shining a light on the parts that make us smile, and a flashlight into the dark parts that don’t. Reflecting the “Sunday afternoon” South: colorfully painted, depicting heartwarming scenes, with a twist that is all too familiar, absurdly odd, but light-hearted, and funny, even if you’re not exactly sure why. An emotional interpretation highlighting aspects in a way that will create a deeper understanding of “us” for insiders and outsiders, helping to embrace our complex absurdity, our Southern Peculiar.