Deadline: Nov 15

Heidi Leitzke creates paintings with thread, ink drawings, and other studio experiments.

Anthony Bannon, executive director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center wrote the following about her work. She "makes islands of fabric, stichery of many colors, threads that become trees, and bushes upon dyed linen, with applied paint, tiny things, jewel ideas, self-contained, that favorite island of the mind."

Leitzke's thread paintings were recently featured in Other Pastures at The Delaware Contemporary and Summer Gardens at Gross McCleaf Gallery, as well as exhibitions at Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn, University City Arts League, Bridgette Mayer Gallery, the U.S. State Department's Art in Embassies program and in the exhibition Interwoven: Art, Craft, Design at Arlington Art Center. Her work has been recognized with a Juror’s Mention from critic Jerry Saltz and an award from Hrag Vartanian, of Hyperallergic.

Her paintings have been included in exhibitions at Denise Bibro Fine Art and the Bowery Gallery, both in New York City. Leitzke's work was included in Stitch, Beyond Function at the Zarrow Center for Art & Education, part of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her most recent solo exhibition was presented at two universities and included a catalog with an essay by painter Bill Scott. Leitzke’s work is in many private collections.

Leitzke graduated with an MFA in painting from Western Carolina University in 2006. She also studied at the Chautauqua Institute School of Art and American University’s Art in Italy program. She earned a BA in Fine Arts from Anderson University in 2002.

Leitzke is Associate Professor and Director of the Eckert Art Gallery at Millersville University. She has taught at the Chautauqua Institute School of Art, Drexel University and Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, where she was the Gallery Director. From 2016-2017, she was the Public Art Manager for the City of Lancaster, PA where she lives and works.