His studio is clean and organized, aside from the dozens of half empty paint tubes and spray cans haphazardly tossed across the floor. A giant white canvas stands tall in front of him. He stares intensely; he looks as though he is pondering the virginity of this blank slate, wondering what colors, what emotions will suit the naked frame best.

Bryan Heck, local Edmonton based artist, is most inspired by raw emotion – anger, sadness, confusion, fear. Those emotions are translated into color and movement – a sliding scale of tints and shades which translate Heck’s feelings into a physical representation of pain, love, or hatred on canvas. He paints because he has to – it is an internal creative drive, and the only way he is truly able to release his emotions. When Heck is painting, he is calming his soul. Producing artwork is a sort of therapy to soothe his inner being.