Heather Golinko (HEGO) is an ink artist and sculptor living in Nashville, TN. Combining her experience working for Donna Karan in New York City and practicing surgical medicine as a PA at Vanderbilt, Heather converged both industries in her artistic expression—showcasing the beauty in form and function down to the cellular level. Society values shape and depth, and humans differentiate themselves from the way we dress for self-expression to our human biology defining who we are to become. Heather’s collection entitled, “Beyond the Surface” highlights this very notion- the interconnected nature of all industry and the beauty and depth one can find in any particularity if they only stop to observe.

Heather is a self-taught artist drawing on inspiration from her mother and sister’s background in wood working and acrylic. Heather started her career in fashion design and transitioned her sewing skills to the operating room as a surgical PA at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Heather’s educational background in both fashion design and medicine heavily influences her work- particularly in form, depth and color palette.

Heather meticulously drips and paints ink onto synthetic paper, creating shapes that flow organically of their own volition. She melts them with a soldering iron - guiding them into sophisticated, collaged sculptures. Heather’s work is finished on hand soldered backgrounds comprised of hundreds of intricate holes and hand drilled into panel. Heather's work aims to represent the grounded yet stratified elements of cellular structure and celebrates its evolutionary complexity.