Heather Friedli

Heather Friedli is a land and heritage inspired artist. Best known for her contemporary impressionist oil paintings and snow sculptures, depicting her family's Native American heritage and the land in which she lives. In her painting, bold brush strokes and brilliant colors light up scenes of cloudscapes, water & native flora and fauna. In her snow sculpting, patterns, figures, animals and natural landscapes dominate. Many pieces are created in the context of her wilderness adventures; she often brings her work outdoors to create art that shares with the viewer an experience of immersion in the landscape. Within these expressive works, Heather explores the spiritual world through the lens of culture and lived experience of place. Heather's work is creative, soulful, bold, and powerful. Friedli's work is an effort to synthesize her love for and experience in the natural world, and her wilderness adventure travel. Those experiences, being out in the world seeing the beauty and power of nature are represented in large scale paintings and snow sculptures. She paints and sculpts with a passion for the land, looking around and internalizing the colors, shapes, textures, feelings, and expressing them onto canvas or in snow. Working on a large scale is not only an expression of what she sees, but also becomes a physical dance with her artwork during the act of creation. The movement and rhythms in these works is her own unique dance with the land around her. Heather Friedli was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1982. She received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2005. In 2010 Heather Thru-Hiked the Appalachian Trail which upon completion inspired her to continue her work as an artist concentrating on painting and sculpting the natural world. In 2019 with Team Dino Fight they captured the US National Snow Sculpting Championship title. This holiday season, Heather premiered on a brand new Disney+ unscripted reality TV snow sculpting competition called "Best in Snow '' co-starring Tituss Burgess & Kermit the Frog. Heather also acted as Lead Pro-sculptor for Team Green (The Bah Humbugs) designing their original Muppet Christmas Carol snow sculpture. Accolades include: Minnesota State Snow Sculpting Competition 2014 (Third Place & Artist Choice) 2016(First Place & Artist Choice), Ham Lake Snowbowl 2018 (First Place), 2019 Twin Cities Beach Blast Sand Sculpting Competition First place and Best in Show, District Spotlight Award for the Saint Paul Art Crawl 2019, People's Choice and Best of Show 2020 SPAC Juried Winter Member Show, People's Choice 2020 Saint Paul Winter Carnival Snow Sculpting Competition, headlining artist of the 2020 Powderhorn Art Fair, 3rd Place and Artist Choice 2021 Minnesota State Snow Sculpting Competition.