Images Fine Art Gallery presents
Heidi Hornberger
Fine Art Cast Bronze Sculpture

A fifth-generation Californian, Heidi Hornberger's interest in woodcarving and bronze casting began during the four years she majored in art at the University of California Santa Barbara. After college, she pursued a successful business career before she returned to art in 1991 as a sculptor working for a garden statuary company in San Francisco. From this background, it was an easy transition to fine art sculptures that could be cast in bronze. She spent thirteen years with the company, collaborating with the owner on designs, creating the prototypes, and doing the photography for their catalogs. 

In 1988, Hornberger visited Bali, Indonesia for the first time, and the woodcarvings captivated her. Ten years later, she returned and studied woodcarving with master carver I. B. Oka Astina. Now she makes an annual pilgrimage to Bali for inspiration and to work in Oka Astina's studio. "Like many artists since the 1930's," she said, "I was attracted to the island because of its strong cultural emphasis on art as a vehicle for accessing the mysteries of life and death."  Hornberger never has a problem being motivated. Her biggest challenge is having enough time in the studio. "That is one reason I do an artist's retreat in Bali every year," she said, "to be free from everyday distractions and to find easy access to the unconscious, from which my sculptures emerge."