About

My name is Heather RJ Fletcher. I am an illustrator, product designer, teacher, marbler, book artist, and author.

How it all started...

I began my career in retail, then moved into television, radio, and internet commercial production, working as a line producer. The work was fast, demanding, and outward-facing — and eventually it required more from me than I could give. Burnout was not a breaking point so much as a turning. It created space to ask better questions about how things are made, who they're for, and what it means to sustain a creative life over time. That questioning led me toward product design and art direction — a place where systems, storytelling, materials, and visual culture meet.​At the center of my work is a long-standing fascination with consumer culture and innovation: how objects carry meaning, how design becomes a shared language, and how restraint can be as powerful as excess. I'm drawn to making visual narratives that feel universal, human, and considered.​

Current Practice…

At present, my work moves fluidly between disciplines.​ I design products, surfaces, and packaging — often thinking about how form, color, and material guide experience. I also illustrate. Alongside this commercial work, I maintain a hands-on studio practice rooted in making: handmade miniature books, pen-and-ink sketches, and botanical studies that lean toward magical realism.​Teaching is an essential part of this practice. Sharing process — especially slow, tactile methods — keeps the work honest and connected. Whether I'm creating at scale or at miniature size, I'm interested in the same questions: attention, intention, and how meaning accumulates through repetition and care.​

Where the line was drawn…

My foundation is in illustration and color — disciplines that taught me how to see before I learned how to produce. Since 2013, I've worked intensively in the book arts: bookmaking, letterpress, etching, and handlettering, with a particular focus on decorative handmade papers.​ Marbling became both a practice and a meditation. In 2019, I published Making Marbled Paper, a book about process, patience, and the quiet discipline of working with water, ink, and time.​ Creative exhausted after writing a lengthy how-to practice. I shifted my career. She Drew the Line grew out of all of this — the work, the pauses, the materials, the boundaries. It’s a place to document what I'm noticing, learning, and choosing to hold onto.​

Studies…

I hold a BA in Studio Arts and Curiosity from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and completed graduate coursework at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). I also earned a certificate in UX Design, expanding my interest in systems, behavior, and how people move through designed experiences.​

Beyond the work

When I'm not working, I teach marbling and book arts at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and internationally. I spend as much time as possible reading & outdoors, exploring and traveling the world and America's National Parks with my husband and our rescue dog, Scooter.​​