{"id":14585,"date":"2000-10-14T21:32:42","date_gmt":"2000-10-15T03:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=14585"},"modified":"2021-01-26T23:02:04","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T05:02:04","slug":"rod-heiss-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/rod-heiss-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rod Heiss"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rod<\/a>

Rod Heiss<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cBend and Not Brake,\u201d says Tao Te Ching.<\/p>\n

This motto motivates Rod Heiss to paint.\u00a0 In his early years, due to undiagnosed eye problems, he was unable to learn the way most children do. School was difficult and defeating.\u00a0 He was constantly being reminded of his differences and being told \u201cYOU CAN’T DO THIS\u201d or \u201cYOU CAN’T DO THAT.\u201d\u00a0 Rod turned to working with his hands to compensate for the lack of confidence school created.<\/p>\n

A new world opened up for him, a world that lacked barriers.\u00a0 Now it seemed that anything was possible. He began a new path of learning how to learn. And this is when his creative instincts began to take root. Years of unstructured training brought a new understanding of how to bring ideas together and see them to completion.<\/p>\n

A defining moment occurred one restless evening. \u00a0He was watching television and saw a documentary on Jackson Pollock. This two-hour program was a revelation to him. An overwhelming desire to paint took hold. Without fear, he attacked canvases like Pollock, using his style as a foundation. \u00a0Soon, however, Rod found his own vocabulary and imitation turned to unique creation. He enrolled in the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, where he learned to channel his raw ability. This resulted in years of creativity in painting and sculpture.<\/p>\n

Then life got in the way. \u00a0Painting and sculpture stopped.\u00a0 He started to bend again.<\/p>\n

In a particularly dark period of paralyzing fear and self-doubt, Rod turned back to art. He rediscovered his language. He has been creating nonstop ever since. First, he turned to sculpture, but has since returned to painting. The world of \u201canything is possible\u201d is once again open.<\/p>\n

Bend and not brake is now what keeps him from sitting still and motivates him to continue the exploration of a world without FEAR!<\/p>\n

Artist Statement<\/h3>\n

Stylistically Rod Heiss\u2019 work pays homage to Abstract Expressionism, but his paintings are not simple replications of Jackson Pollock.\u00a0 Rather, his painted canvases make reference to design, a trade that requires meticulous attention to detail, obsession with the grid, and strict exactness marked by a complete accordance to minute measurements.<\/p>\n

Yet it is exactly this grid that is continuously deconstructed, liquefied and obliterated in his paintings.\u00a0 With titles such as Attack! Attack! Attack! <\/em>and Divide the Light, <\/em>Heiss\u2019 work negotiates between grid and abstract, exactness and free expression and bespeaks his long\u00a0 invested study of Taoist philosophy.<\/p>\n

In fact, his work seemingly makes reference to the classic Chinese text, the Tao Te Ching, which says, \u201cBend and not brake.\u00a0 Curl and you will be straight. Keep empty and you will be filled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like a visual mediation, Heiss\u2019 lines bend, curl and consciously keep themselves empty\u2014empty of narrative, empty of strictness, empty of measurements. \u00a0Yet, the continual presence of the grid in disruption manifests the yin and yang connection found in Heiss\u2019 work, between strictness and expression, shadow and light, grid and abstraction.<\/p>\n

The paintings function like a cartographic landscape and are a balanced map of structures that continually give rise to chaos.<\/p>\n

Artist Images<\/h3>\n
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\u201cNumber 8\u201d by Rod Heiss, Acrylic on Masonite 47\u201dx32\u201d 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

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Celebration Of by Rod Heiss, acrylic on masonite 36\u201dx66\u201d 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

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Number 4 by Rod Heiss, acrylic on masonite 47\u201dx32\u201d 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

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In The Corner by Rod Heiss Acrylic on Masonite 24\u201dx72\u201d 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

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Movement In Yellow by Rod Heiss, acrylic on masonite 28\u201dx47\u201d 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

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Number 21 by Rod Heiss acrylic on masonite 47\u201dx47\u201d 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

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Without Blemish by Rod Heiss, acrylic on masonite 36\u201dx42\u201d 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

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Number 7 by Rod Heiss, acrylic on Masonite 24\u201dx60\u201d 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

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Divide The Light by Rod Heiss, acrylic on masonite 32\u201dx60\u201d 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sunset by Rod Heiss, acrylic on masonite 16\u201dx84\u201d 2012<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u201cBend and Not Brake,\u201d says Tao Te Ching. This motto motivates Rod Heiss to paint.\u00a0 In his early years, due to undiagnosed eye problems, he was unable to learn the way most children do. School was difficult and defeating.\u00a0 He was constantly being reminded of his differences […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1645,"featured_media":14789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,135,138,117],"tags":[1133],"class_list":["post-14585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-functional","category-painting","category-sculpture","category-utah-artists-h","tag-rod-heiss"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-14 14:03:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14585"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56307,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14585\/revisions\/56307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}