Heidi Viemeister
June 20, 1951–Dec. 27, 2016
Heidi Viemeister — artist, sister, mother and grandmother—died peacefully on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016 from lung cancer. She was 65 years old.
She struggled against injustice and inequality. She loved children and animals.
The third child of Read and Beverly Viemeister, Heidi grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She always loved horses and learned to ride her horses Thunderbird and Winnie at the Riding Center.
She attended the Antioch school, and after graduating from YS High School, Class of ’69, she studied printmaking and art at the Dayton Art Institute.
Her original posters for the Little Art Theater were always bright and cheerful.
She started working for her father at Vie Design Studios as a paste-up artist, and eventually took over as president.
She designed and illustrated numerous Antioch University documents.
Recently, she had been helping to clean things up and design things for Antioch.
Heidi’s son Michael was born in February 1971, and in the 1980s she had two daughters with Tim Harris — Portia, born July 1985, and Alison, born June 1987. Together, they kept a horse, Jackson, and two miniature horses, John and Wayne, and also raised two pigs — Lunch and Dinner.
In 1993, she and the girls moved to Wellington, Colorado, where she worked at Colorado State University in Fort Collins until a diagnosis of breast cancer detoured her life. Heidi and the girls returned to Yellow Springs on Lincoln Court, where they remain to date.
Heidi was a gifted artist and insightful illustrator. She loved drawing and made beautiful “shadow” paintings, miniature sculptures of crying babies and small ceramic animals. She created T-shirts and sculpted cat doorstops and magnets for Young Concepts. An avid rock-hound, Heidi was always searching for petrified dinosaur bones to add to her large collection of unusual minerals, Indian artifacts, dinosaur poop and other stones found on her travels and around Yellow Springs. She was always on the lookout for homeless wildlife and cared for a large list of pets.
Heidi was most proud of her family: her children Michael (major, US Army), Portia (musical producer, Torch Studios) and Alison (chef at Antioch College); her grandchildren Truman (17), Ceron (12), Trinity (10), David (2) and Dylan (1) and Sophie (on her way); and her siblings Kris, of Virginia, and Tucker and Roslyn, who live in New York.
We will regularly and fondly recall the many fine and funny times we shared with Heidi, and carry on Heidi’s legacy — and will miss her posts on Facebook!
(Happy rock hunting, Heidi.)