Episode #215 Heather Eck Color Healing Through Intuitive Art

Color can be more than decoration. Sometimes it is information, a mirror, and even a kind of medicine. On this Ready Set Reiki journey, we are joined by intuitive artist and writer Heather Eck, with Dina Fortune as our co-guide, to explore what happens when synesthesia, spirituality, and energy healing meet the canvas. Heather shares how she senses people through specific shades, how those aura colors point to emotional blocks, and how she translates that into abstract paintings designed to uplift and restore. 

We also talk about the real-life turning point behind her work: nearly 20 years in corporate HR, a body pushed too far, and the moment she chose the path that felt restorative instead of impressive. From there we dig into trusting intuitive “downloads,” why creativity can calm the nervous system, and how looking at art or making something with your hands can become a steady practice for wellness. If you’ve ever wondered whether faith and spiritual gifts can belong in the same life, Heather offers a grounded perspective rooted in scripture while still honoring intuition and the chakra-informed language of color healing. 

Heather Eck is an award-winning abstract fine artist, intuitive healer, and synesthesia practitioner based in Holly Springs, North Carolina. Best known for creating "Spirit Portraits," she uses her unique ability to see emotions and energy as colors to help clients transform their personal narratives through visionary art.

You’ll also hear practical takeaways for building a soul-led creative healing business, including why ignoring your own inner signals is the fastest way to build something you hate. Heather closes with a simple experiment: look at what colors you keep wearing, because your wardrobe might be telling you what your spirit needs next. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a creative reset, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

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Transcript

Welcome To Ready Set Reiki

SPEAKER_02 0:21

This is Ready Set Reiki, a podcast about Reiki and all energy work, from the curious beginner to the seasoned master teacher, welcoming all systems, all lineages, all levels. Reiki is a journey and not a destination. And on this Ready Set Reiki journey, I refer to myself as a guide rather than host, as I too am traveling, learning, and supporting others on this Reiki journey as well. And with that said, I am your guide, Tracy Seawright, and this is Ready Set Reiki. Hello, Reiki family. Reiki blessings to you, one and all, another amazing adventure. And how lucky am I that I get to have a co-guide today on my journey? So I'd like for you to introduce my co-guide.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Oh, hi. I am Dina Fortune. I'm an intuitive artist, a channeler, and also a co-facilitator of

Community Support For Reiki Businesses

SPEAKER_01 1:10

ceremonies and a co-creator of the Welcome to Dragons Home, Bringing the Dragons Home Facebook group. Just a few things about me. I'm so grateful to be here. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

And you'll find out why I have Dina along me on this journey, because the person we're having our journey with today is very special and they have some few things in common. But before we begin our journey, I'd like to invite you to the Reiki Business Collective. Here they share, support, and serve. This is a Facebook book, and so it costs zero dollars to join. No matter where you are on your energy work journey, this is a place to connect with your Reiki business community. Wherever you are, if you're starting a business, thinking about it, writing about it, maybe singing a song about it, whatever it is, this is the place to go. Check it out. We're here supporting. A few days ago, we did the Reiki Business Collective, and it was a beautiful opportunity to help inspire, encourage others, and this is what we're here for. I want you to never ever feel alone on this healing journey. Sometimes you might feel like you're on an island, but no, there's people like myself and Dina and our guest today that can be supportive if you are working with energy and even working with your intuition. So

Meet Heather Eck And Her Gift

SPEAKER_02 2:25

let's get back to our journey here. So I'd like to introduce uh, she is a friend to one of my very good friends, Rose Whippich. It's Heather Eck. Now, she is a multimedia abstract artist and writer, an intuitive artist, and a painter. Now, she interprets people's pieces and experiences through color, a condition known as synthesis. And now an enormous box of prayons, her gift operates by categorizing through intricate but specific shades of color. While this condition enables her to experience color, she responds to the encounters with people, things, emotions, spaces by understanding the particular shade of experiences that a person dwells in. She uses her gift to detect the most healing color for them to remedy their wounds. Guided by the chakra system and inspired by spirituality and the mysteries of the universe, Heather transforms these vibrant energies into captivating paintings that uplift, inspires, and ultimately heals. So let's give a ready set Reiki. Welcome to Heather. Yay! Thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here with you guys tonight. So I told our listener just a little bit about you, but I know there is so much more. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

I uh I'm a painter, I'm an intuitive artist. Prior to doing this work, I was a corporate HR girl. So I spent almost 20 years in corporate HR. I had been a really creative kid, but I sort of spiraled away from art in pursuit of the 401k and the steady paycheck. And then as many of us do, I experienced that, you know, I wouldn't call it a dark night of the soul, but just that period of time in your life where, you know, no amount of time off is going to make you feel better. I felt like there was more to life than what I was doing. And I really was looking for what's my purpose? What am I here to do? I had dabbled in every modality you could think of. I got certified in every possible thing. Um, but it wasn't until I came back to art that my gifts started to open up and I really discovered I could see people's energy through their auras. And when I would meet somebody, I would get like two or three colors for them. And I that would tell me information about what was going on with them. And then I started to do what I would call a spirit portrait for somebody that shows a bit of where they're stuck or blocked, and then which color sort of acts like a prescription for them to help elevate and uplift them to feel better. And that's what I do now. Oh, I lost you, Tracy.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

When did these uh spirituality and the mysteries of

Leaving Corporate To Follow Purpose

SPEAKER_02 5:10

the universe come into your life?

SPEAKER_00 5:12

When I was really little, my parents would joke that I was born in the wrong decade. They were like, you are such a flower child. I was really into things that like no 10-year-old would really, I was into astrology and I would read these books that my dad had that were like unsolved mysteries of the universe or like un you know, mysteries of the unexplained. I was just really into God. I would spend time in the library trying to learn about the Dead Sea Scrolls. So I feel like spirituality has always been with me. And throughout my life, I've sort of come on and off the path. And I would say within the last 11 years, I've stayed on it.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Oh, beautiful, beautiful. So you would call yourself an intuitive, right? An intuitive artist, yeah. An intuitive artist. So what are some of the misconceptions that you hear from people when they find out that you are this intuitive artist?

SPEAKER_00 6:05

I think there's so there are intuitive artists who paint without having a plan, which is me. Like I don't set out to create a landscape or or a vaza flowers or anything. I really just come up to the canvas and say, what is it that I should paint today, or what energy am I trying to sort of channel onto the canvas? Um, but there's also this intuitive side where uh I'll receive messages or downloads or information for the person I'm painting for while I'm painting. Like a certain song will pop in my head, or or what have you. So I think, you know, we're all energy, and I think people forget that that energy can also be conveyed through uh a tool like paint or um a tool like music or what have you. So um I think that's something that confuses people when they first hear about it. I know um, Dina, you probably think that same thing too. You probably hear that same thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Yeah, you're speaking about language right now. Although I don't have that gift to be able to see people's colors like that. That's really what is that synesthesia? Yeah, synesthesia. Yeah, it's such a fascinating um thing to have, you know, because I feel like I wish I could have that.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

You might even have it. A lot of people do, and they just don't know um for that. Was the same thing for me. I grew up always seeing in my mind like choreography for music, or I would hear something and I would see it like a color or a shape. And um, it wasn't until I was in my 40s that I learned what the definition of that was. But for some people, if I were to say, you know, does do the days of the week have a color or a shape? Or um if you hear something, does it have a color or a shape? Um, there are over 80 different forms of synesthesia. So some people have it and they just haven't um, you know, looked Googled enough to find out which form they have.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

What beautiful. I know when I was uh in college and with art, I was considered a spontaneous artist versus the meticulous artist. And my

Synesthesia And How Intuitive Art Works

SPEAKER_02 8:15

mother was an artist, and my oldest daughter's an amazing artist, and just portraits and the things that she does, and like her self-portrait was just it just blew me away. I mean, it's just so magical. Uh, but like, have you always had a love of art?

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, that was with me when I was really little too. And my spiritual teacher says that your gifts show up when you're young. And so for anybody listening who's like, I don't know, you know, I don't know what I'm good at or what I'm here for. I feel like you can go look at your childhood interests and curiosities and find a lot of them point to what your purpose or your path is here, because that was that way for me. Because I was always a very spiritual kid and I was always a very creative kid. Um, and I was always sketching and drawing, listening to music, sort of sitting in like that, you know, sitting in a field by myself in the sun, like pondering life. Like, who does that? But that was always that was always me as a little kid. And so when I look back at that now, I go, oh, this makes sense. It makes sense that I was into that. I just sort of took a wide uh path to come back around to it uh later in life.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Right. And I find too on the journey that you know, people come into these gifts or revisit them again in their 40s and their 50s and their 60s, so don't give up. I mean, yeah, going back to that childhood, I mean, there's certain things that, like, whoa, like, oh, this makes sense now. You know, I was doing this as a kid, and um, it made me think about how um a psychic had told me, you know, in another life, you know, you were a land baroness and you had like all these properties and all these things. And as a little kid, I would have like the rooms in the house is 2B, 2C, 2D, and I was and I was like, check in, ding, ding, ding. And I'm like, who plays this? You know, and like with the phone, hello, you know, and I was like the lady of the manor. I'm like, where do you come up with this? I think at the time we had like what five TV channels and like Atari and ColecoVision. So I don't know where that came from. So I love that. Yeah. So what surprised you or surprises you when you know you're intuitive about being intuitive?

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Uh honestly, I think it still surprises me when I get things right, you know, or that are accurate for somebody, because I think that learning to trust what comes through for somebody in the painting or in the messages that come through. Um, I I know early on, and even now, I still sometimes sort of censor or think, well, that can't be right. Like, I don't know what this means, but just because I don't know what it means doesn't mean that the other person doesn't know what it means. And so that always surprises me, especially when they connect to something that came through so strongly. I think, oh gosh, I'm so glad that I said that. Had I not said that, they wouldn't receive the fullness of their portrait or their or their reading. So that always surprises me.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Oh, beautiful,

[Ad] Come Home to Yourself

SPEAKER_02 11:57

beautiful. So when it's time, you know, for you to get an energetic tune up, what are some qualities

(Cont.) Synesthesia And How Intuitive Art Works

SPEAKER_02 12:05

that you yourself look for in healers?

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Oh man, that's a great question. Um, I really look for people who are grounded in um, so I'm a uh a believer in Jesus. I read the Bible and I'm really strongly rooted in scripture. And so I look for people who are also tethered in that way. Um, but really, I just love meeting people who have gifts. I feel like the more people I know who are gifted in spiritual ways, it's like a team of Avengers. You know, I'm like, oh my gosh, you have that gift? That's amazing. Um, and

Faith And Energy Work Together

SPEAKER_00 12:40

I always look for people who have gifts that are different than mine because I don't I can't read myself. I have no idea what I'm doing half the time. So I look for people who who have like evidential um um opportunities to share what comes through for them.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

Sure. My um friend said that you know, she has me because I'm a sign or sign. And a lot of the things that I do, you know, my uh I grew up in a very Bible-based home. So we were Episcopalian. So the word and God was everything. So usually people are pretty surprised at how religious I I am in that and how devoted I am to my faith. So there because you do yoga, you do the the cards. Uming, where I have dreams of different scenes and things, and that's really kind of developed uh into um seeing those that have passed. And a lot of people don't think that's of the light or of God. And I remember somebody came up and she said, you know, you're not a Christian. And I'm like, this is a cross I've had since I've been 16 years old. I grew up in the church, I was an acolyte, I got confirmed, my children are baptized, I got married in the church, you know, and so they're really surprised by that. They're like, How can you do spiritual work and you know, follow God? So it's like it can be done. It can it can be done.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah, thank you for saying that too, because I think that's a misconception that a lot of people have as well that that might um perceive that I'm not a follower of Jesus if I can see color, but I think all those gifts are in the Bible anyway, and so I'm like, no, it's it's all there.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Just have to look for it, yeah. It's so hard, and um, you know, just even growing up, that idea that we prayed for the sick and the poor, and that you can ask for prayers for yourself too, right? Because it was like you're not supposed to be selfish, you know, and so um a lot, yeah, a lot of people just have that misconception with oh, you do woo-woo, you do this, yeah. This is spirituality, it's not of God, but who gave you that gift? You know, exactly. When like Paul McCartney, who has I think the ear of God, you know, and he just gets these songs. I think I was reading somewhere that he's just had thousands of songs that he's written in his lifetime so far, 83. And but how magical! But they came through dreams and other things as well, you know. Just so why not through painting? Why not? Yeah, exactly. Thank

Daily Practices That Keep You Grounded

SPEAKER_02 15:10

you. Yes. So here you are, you've had the corporate world, you're here, you're doing your art, you're having profound influence of color and well-being here. And so, what advice would you give to someone who is entering that spiritual work?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Oh my gosh, I think make space and make time for it, even if it's just a few minutes a day. I think that was one of the things that helped me so much when I was working and really felt burned out because I would give myself time in the morning to paint, even if it was just for 10 minutes before I left for the office. And um, that allowed me to feel like I was communing with God or connecting to my spirit before I went into a place that dreamed me so much. And so I think if you can just offer yourself a couple of minutes of that reprieve each day or that meditation each day, or that prayer, whatever it is, just to help you stay connected because it changed my day when I would go to work and have a little bit of paint on my hand and know that, like, okay, that's there for me when I get home. You know, that really helped me a ton to stay focused on my spirituality.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Beautiful. I had heard uh Bill Murray speak about there was a particular painting that changed his life. Like he was rich in dire straits, and this painting changed his life. Is there a particular painting or a particular artist for you? Like when I was younger, it was just Picasso. I don't know why, but I was just an educator, so drawn to him that I, you know, created a course called Pee-Wee Picasso that, you know, it took a lifetime to paint like a child. So is that that one artist that kind of blows you away?

SPEAKER_00 16:59

No, you know, it's so funny. There's this one piece that I love to visit that's at our North Carolina Museum of Art. It's by Robert Motherwell, and it's called Two Figures, and it's a beautiful abstract painting. There's something about that energy that just draws me in. And it's not really colors that I paint with either, but it's more of um kind of like a rust color and a black color, and it's just two kind of ovaly shaped, organic-shaped things. And I just love that piece so much. But the other thing that I really love is there, I think what's so interesting about the time we're living in is that there are so many people uh who are creating, whether it's painting or sculpting or crochet, or now I'm really getting into sewing. I'm going back to my like college years and sewing. There's so much creativity happening and you get to share it online. And so you get to see so many people's works. And I'm just inspired by the people who are doing any kind of creating today because it's so crazy out in the world. Creativity is so grounding and healing, and so it just makes me happy to see that people are giving themselves that time, whether it's a doodle or a dress, you know, it just makes a huge difference in your well-being.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Yeah. And then just with social media, you're able to get on and do that in front of them, whether it's playing piano or painting or you know, your sculpting, whatever that is, there's so many opportunities for that creative outlet. Yeah. So many podcasts, right? So many. So yeah. So we really live in a time where we can truly, really express ourselves with not too much criticism. I mean, there are people that we can. So, what books do you recommend?

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Um I'm always reading constantly.

Painting Words From Scripture In Color

SPEAKER_00 18:50

I am uh somebody who toggles between um listening to books, reading on my Kindle. Yeah. Um, so I'm I'm reading the Bible. I try to read every day. I am um trying to learn biblical Hebrew and biblical Greek so that I can read in the original language at some point. And then I'm also reading these like really um smuddy romance books that are all happy ending. You know, they all have happy endings by Claire Kingsley. I think I'm on like book six out of eight or something at night. And then I also am reading um The Testaments again by uh Margaret Atwood. So I really and then I'll read like a Course in Miracles. I really read like whatever I can get my hands on.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

We're 110, I think, on the Course and Miracles. Oh nice.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yeah, I really I love to read. So I'm reading many books at one given any given time.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

I started that like January 1st. It makes it easier to go through. Oh, that's smart.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Yeah, I have so many books myself that I I'll just open it up and like read a page and then I'll put it back and then I'll another book and I'll read a page of that. Like you just I um read one page of a book. I feel like I I'm obviously I'm more of an audible, I'm more of an audible person, but try to keep my ability to read going. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

You know, as you're reading through, you know, um Bible where you're reading different stories about those in the Bible, are you able to see the colors around like Mother Mary and Jesus?

SPEAKER_00 20:34

I it's that's such a great question. I really am tuning into um particular words at this point that I'm really drawn to, um, especially in Greek. And so um I'm just putting together a proposal for an exhibition around the word tetalostae, which is in Greek means it is finished. It's the last word that Jesus said on the cross. And so I'm exploring the energy of that word and the deep meaning behind that word, because there's like four different definitions in the original Greek for what it means. And so I'm kind of playing with or exploring like what that word feels like in color and what the energy around that event feels like in color. And I know you probably can't see too much behind me, but there are a couple of really large pieces back there that explore um uh uh uh different things that are um in uh in Hebrew. Um one is called teshuva, which means to return or to um to call back in. Um, and so I kind of play with like words that just sort of feel um vibrationally good to me, and then explore what that looks like. Beautiful.

Spirit Portraits Color Calls And Her Podcast

SPEAKER_00 21:50

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

So, what other services do you offer? Do you do classes, events, trainings?

SPEAKER_00 21:58

I do, yeah. I do um what I call a spirit portrait, which is essentially me tuning into your energy and creating uh the uh portrait of your soul. It's really where the idea for my podcast came from, your radiant spirit, because I would show somebody their their painting and say, You're so beautiful. Look at your energy. Because I think we forget sometimes that we are beautiful, sparkly spirits, and um, and we're kind of hanging out in these bodies sometimes that where your hip hurts or your back hurts or whatever, but we forget that we're so beautiful. So I do those, and then I also do a free monthly color healing call. It's sort of like um a little bit of therapeutic art. some color reading and we talk about one particular color. Um and then I've got uh other workshops that kind of pop up mostly around creative healing um and using art and color for healing too. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

I love that. So where can we find you, online or in person? If someone's interested in booking a session or service with you.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Yeah, I I'm mostly on Instagram. You can find me there at HeatherEckArtist or you can visit my website heatherecstudios.com or heatherec.com and um I've got some free color healing guides out there you can download. It'll give you like what does this color mean? What does that color mean? If you love this color, what does that mean? If you hate this color, what does that mean? So you can download that PDF and learn more about color too.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Beautiful. And you have a podcast correct I do yep.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

You mentioned dreaming and I had a dream I had two dreams about starting a podcast and I was like oh maybe I should start this so I did.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Where can we find your podcast?

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Uh you can find it really anywhere you listen to podcasts on Apple or Spotify. It's on YouTube. It's called Your Radiant Spirit.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Beautiful so that ends the first part of the journey together and I'm going to guide you on over to Dina who has some questions from social media and energy students.

unknown 23:57

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yay thank you thank you Tracy so the first question is how do you believe

Listener Questions On Art And Healing

SPEAKER_01 24:06

is this in granting healing and transformation to a person oh how do I believe art is healing?

SPEAKER_00 24:18

That's yeah sorry okay oh no you're good yes oh my gosh well I there's so many interesting studies that have popped up on Instagram lately where it says just looking at art for a few minutes instantly slows down um the mind. It calms the nervous system looking at bright colors helped to soothe us um anything that you do for 15 minutes with your hands whether you're painting or crocheting or playing piano or what have you calms the central nervous system too. So I think anytime you're looking at art engaging with art and art of all kinds um it offers you a path towards healing because it calms everything down awesome I love that I totally agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

There's a book called Your Brain on Art. Yes it's a really great book that talks a lot about that and the science behind it.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

What inspires you to address themes of healing and resilience in your work I think initially when you know I remember right at about a year before I left corporate to pursue art full time I um I had one of those days that you think is from a movie where I got promoted, I had a spa day I bought a new car and then had a crazy panic attack and ended up in the emergency room with high blood pressure. And I think that the stress of that job that was just really kind of taking me out and all of the uh cumulative stress from just years of not taking care of myself, I really found myself at a crossroads where I had to decide was I was going to pursue the path that would probably kill me or pursue the path that was the most restorative to me. And so I think whenever I'm able to help somebody with a place where they're stuck or blocked or just where they're not being kind to themselves, it opens up a conversation where they can pursue healing and they can pursue wellness. And so it's very important to me that um you know I deliver that message with love and kindness but also with urgency to say hey you got to take care of this this is important so that you can live your life as well as you can and to fulfill the purpose that you're here to fulfill as well.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Wow yeah beautiful thank you and the third question is what tips can you offer to other creatives who are growing a soul led creative healing business now I'm really tuning in for this one.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

I will tell you the biggest mistake that I made in the last year was not listening to myself. You know somebody who's so sensitive to energy and emotion uh I just kind of blatantly ignored my own feelings about things and sort of set about on a path of listening to like this high ticket coach and this marketing manager and this whatever. And then I found myself at the end of last year going I hate everything that I just created in my business. I I can't this isn't working and so for the last couple of months I've really been like dialing it back and going back to what what is it that inspired me to pursue art in the first place? What is it that inspired me to leave that job to do this full time and how do we get back to that so I would say the best advice I can give you is put on your little earmuffs sit quietly with yourself talk to God talk to you know your spirit guides whatever it is like get quiet and feel your way and listen to your energy as you go and try not to get sucked into what you see other people doing and just stay in your lane with great love stay in your lane and do the thing that you're good at and do that with authenticity and integrity and and then have fun with it.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

I know that probably sounds so simple but that has really that's what it's been about for me in the last couple of months like girl focus on this totally yeah so awesome thank you so much I love that and so great to see um that you've been able to make that transition and make a living doing what you love and so any other things that you did not say yet that you forgot or didn't come up that you would like to share like any last thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Yes I love to tell people to pay attention to what they're wearing.

What Your Outfit Colors Reveal

SPEAKER_00 29:05

What colors are you wearing um and if you um go look at your hamper go look at what you wore last week if you haven't done your laundry yet and see what colors you wore the most of because those colors are communicating something that your spirit needs because we reach for the color that offers us the most support. So if you find yourself wearing a lot of green you're working in your hard space and you're working on self-love and um and compassion and so kind of sit with that. And as you reach for your shirt tomorrow um you know if it's red go oh my body's asking for some attention what is it that I need there's so much people are just not aware of how powerful color is and um and it can really start an interesting conversation with your spirit.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

I love that thank you I might be in trouble I mostly have black things but I do the protection so black black black black I used to call myself the Johnny Cash of teaching oh yeah the black I love that so I'm like yeah always have black on because it was just a way for me to protect my energy when I was working because my background is an elementary school teacher so transitional kindergarten preschool right so yep and where can we find you what's your website one more time it's um heatherecstudios.com beautiful all right well thank you heather for taking this journey with us I really appreciate you taking time out of your very busy schedule so thank you so much thank you guys and remember if you want a symphony of color and emotion check out Heather check out that website so beautiful artwork so those of you my beautiful listeners thank you Dina for joining me on the journey Dina can you uh tell the listeners where again they can

Where To Find Everyone And Farewell

SPEAKER_02 30:55

find you yes so you can find me at LinkTree Soledina I'm also on Instagram Facebook TikTok if you look up Soledina S O U L Y D I N A you will find me all right beautiful and listeners if you want your question featured on the podcast reach out www dot ready setricky dot com and check me out on social media. I'm Tracy Seawright and this has been Ready Set Reiki