Heather Hilliard Bonds: A Space For Me (Creating Safe Outdoor Places for Our Teens)
Artist Heather Hilliard Bonds's residency A Space For Me (Creating Safe Outdoor Places for Our Teens) aims to create a safe and inspiring outdoor space for teenagers at the La Pintroresca Teen Education Center (LPTEC). Heather's approach involves working collaboratively with the teens, community members, and officials to create a place where teenagers can feel a sense of belonging, connection, and harmony. The project's first phase culminated during the 28th Annual Family Fun Day at the LPTEC with the unveiling of a new mural, created by teens and community members, followed by a hands-on art workshop. Heather is now moving on to phase two of their project, to collaborate with the teens in creating a garden, which will culminate in Spring of 2025.
A Space For Me (Creating Safe Outdoor Places for Our Teens) is divided into three phases, each designed to engage the teens in the process. In January 2024, Heather began phase one of the project. She hosted a drawing workshop at the teen center to sketch out a mural design. Teenagers participated by drawing their own work, and later Heather combined them. For the next four months, Heather, the teens, and community members painted the mural design on a wall in the back of the teen center. By April of 2024, the mural was completed. The mural highlights the Pasadena Unified School District high schools, Pasadena's roses, California Poppy flowers, and more from the teenagers’ imaginations, and pop culture interests. This phase gave the teens a sense of ownership and investment in the project to make the space feel like their own personal sanctuary.
The mural was revealed during Family Fun Day. Participants who contributed to the painting, along with community members, partners, and city officials, gathered to celebrate the project's success. Following the reveal, families came together with Heather and Side Street Projects teaching artists next to the mural for a workshop of painting terracotta pots and planting succulents, which they took home with them.
Heather is now working on moving forward with the second and third phases of the project. The second phase involves creating a garden that teens can care for and take pride in. The teens will plant a selection of greenery— drought-tolerant plants, plants for beautification, and plants to harvest. In the third phase, the teens will upcycle furniture, bringing new life and meaning to old pieces and making them their own.
During Family Fun Day, the artist, the teens, community members, and city officials gathered together to celebrate the unveiling of the new mural. After, families gathered in front of the mural for our art workshop. Participants painted small terracotta pots and planted succulents to take home. To kick off phase two of the project, they also painted bigger pots that stayed at the teen center to beautify the space.
Heather's vision brings together art, nature, and community to create a space that inspires and uplifts. Through A Space For Me (Creating Safe Outdoor Places for Our Teens), Heather hopes to create a lasting impact, where young people can find a sense of belonging and connection to themselves, each other, and the world around them.
This project is funded by the Pasadena Community Foundation.
Watch the mural reveal:
BIO
Heather Hilliard Bonds is an artist, raised by her mother Nancy Hillard, from the Altadena and Pasadena Area. She has been an artist since she first picked up a crayon. She has always had a love for children and began her career in childcare. This experience led to an internship with the Armory Center for the Arts, where she realized she could combine her enjoyment of working with children with her other passion in life, which is art.
Heather attended college at Texas Southern University, Pasadena City College, and Cal State University of Los Angeles. She has a degree in Art Education. She teaches art to all age groups, from preschoolers to the elderly, and enjoys it all. She has provided art classes from the Etiwanda school district, Fontana Art Depot, and the ARTS Academy in Covina. Heather also works with children and adults with special needs and disabilities and is a certified Art therapist. The love she has for is also shared with Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Youth Leadership programs. She creates a curriculum for scout merit badges and workshops for these youth.
Heather has participated in several art shows; Family and Friends Center, Loma Alta Park, and Jackie Robinson Park for the Black History Month events, Art Night in Pasadena, the Coffee Gallery in Pasadena, Fontana Arts Festival, and Leimert Park, just to name a few. Her works have also been exhibited in the Armory Center of the Arts Gallery, Urban Life Gallery, Pomona Valley Arts Association Gallery, San Bernardino County Museum, and the Art for Hearts fundraising exhibit.
There are also several murals painted around Pasadena, on places like La Pintoresca Library, Norma Combs Elementary School, Villa Park, Victory Park, Jackie Robinson, Washington Elementary School, Buenos Tacos, Escalon Head Start, and Praise Tabernacle Church all have been painted with her art. She also creates chalk murals for the Pasadena Chalk Festival. Heather is also a doll maker and often exhibits her handmade dolls in galleries and art spaces as well as the Annual Black Doll Show for the William Grant Stil Center.
Heather is a published writer and illustrator. She’s illustrated several books for authors and has written children's books, coloring books, and poetry of her own. She’s a cohost for the Simply Aldonia Show, broadcast through Pasadena Media, and has performed poetry for “A Little Bit Poetry” television series. She is also a spoken word artist whose artists whose performed at venues such as Perry’s Joint, Hoopla, Jackie Robinson Park, Jazz Zone, and Simply Aldonia Show.
Heather is a proud mother of four and a grandmother. She says she can see the influences of her love for art trickling down to her children, grandchildren, and students. She loves it and hopes to bring smiles to the children and adults she works with. She also wants to inspire others, so that they can get a greater appreciation of art and create for themselves.
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In 2023, Heather Hillard Bonds was invited to “develop a project that creates peaceful spaces for intergenerational connection and the conditions for collective healing, with a trauma-informed-care approach,” based on SSP’s Artist Residency theme “UNTWISTED: Inside Out In”.