Twelve years away from painting.
That's what it took for Heather Waymouth, the Los Angeles based abstract painter known artistically as Hey Way, to come back to the version of herself she'd set down as a college student.
She didn't wake up as a painter one day. She wasn't rescued by a mentor or a scholarship or a moment of divine intervention. What she did have was a slow, quiet knowing that she'd been carrying something inside herself the whole time. And one morning, in her Los Angeles apartment, she decided to stop hiding it.
Our Summer Solstice episode of The Magic Within Us is Heather's story. And it's one for anyone who's been standing at the edge of a dream, wondering if it's too late, or too small, or too scary, and quietly hoping someone else will say it's not.
From art to marketing to burnout
Heather grew up painting. It was her favorite thing to do as a kid. Coloring, drawing, mixing colors and watching them become something. In middle school she got serious. In college she studied studio art, imagining a life where she could actually do this.
Then the noise started.
"I was getting discouraged by a lot of people telling me that it's really hard. It's going to be hard to make money and have a stable job with it."
Halfway through college, she dropped out of art school. She switched into marketing, advertising, PR, the "logical" creative career. She moved to California and worked, and worked, and worked. And for about eight or nine years, she convinced herself that this was creative enough. That this was close enough. That this was the compromise adults were supposed to make.
"I just kind of I burnt out. Like, I just didn't feel like I was being authentic to myself."
Anyone who's ever suppressed a knowing knows what she's talking about.
The Instagram algorithm knew before she did
Then something quietly shifted. Heather started noticing friends leaving their jobs to become coaches, yoga instructors, founders. Instagram started serving her artists. And she started missing something she'd been telling herself she didn't need.
"I was like, I just really miss like… you know, something bigger, better. And I miss art, I miss it."
So she started painting again. Not for a show. Not for a career. Just for herself. And then friends came over, saw the work, and wanted to buy pieces. And then their friends wanted to buy pieces. And what she'd been afraid to want was suddenly happening. Quietly, naturally, without permission from anyone but herself.
"I woke up one day and was like, I don't care anymore"
The scariest part, Heather says, wasn't returning to painting. It was sharing the work. Showing it to strangers. Posting it on social media. Being seen wanting something.
"I'm always a perfectionist, so I had to really get over that. There was also a part of me that cared a lot what people thought about me."
And then, one morning:
"I kind of woke up one day and was like, I don't care anymore. It's for me, and it doesn't matter what other people think."
That single sentence has become the mantra behind her practice.
Not defiance. Not bravado. Just a quiet, radical permission.
The middle of the painting always feels terrible
One of the most honest things Heather shared about her creative process is that every single painting has a middle phase where she hates it.
"It's not, because there's so many layers that go into it. And it can be pretty intuitive at times with the abstract. Sometimes you're just like, I have the vision. It's not there yet."
When she gets stuck, she doesn't push through. She walks away. Goes into nature. No headphones. Just stillness. A day later, she comes back. And she trusts.
"I just can't look back. I just trust the process."
That's the ritual. That's the whole magic.
Parting with a painting feels like sending a kid to college
One of the moments in this episode that will stay with you: Heather describes what it feels like to sell a painting.
"It almost feels like your kid going off to college where it's like very bittersweet, where it's like my child and it's like, all right, you're looking at the world. I'm very proud. But you're not gonna sit on my giant. You're not going to take up my wall anymore."
That's the price of making something with your soul in it. The joy of it going out into the world. The tiny heartbreak of the empty space where it used to hang.
Shadow seasons and coming home
Heather also spoke about the relationship that ended right before her art really came back to life. The one where she wasn't truly herself. Where she wasn't accepted for who she was.
"Sometimes you got to have the dark with the light."
When the relationship ended, she came out of it and asked herself the question that changes everything. Who am I? Who do I want to be?
And that's when the painting came back for real.
Every shadow season, if you let it, becomes the season that catapults you home.
What she wants people to know
At the end of the conversation, we asked Heather what she wishes more people understood about their own potential.
Her answer was simple.
"There's no limits. You're honestly your biggest challenge, the one that gets in your way the most. More than any other fear that you're having about it."
And her one reminder for listeners?
"Just go do it."
Listen to the full conversation
Heather's full Summer Solstice conversation is out now on YouTube and Podbean. It's a slow, warm, honest hour with an artist who came home to herself the long way, and made it look worth every year of the detour.
Whether you've been meaning to come back to a hobby, a dream, or a version of yourself, this one is for you.
🎨 See Heather's paintings and follow along: heywayart.com · @heyway.art
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What's one dream you've been meaning to come back to?
Come tell us in the comments, or share this piece with someone who needs the reminder.
Keep it cosmic ✨
- Stephanie
