I am concerned with humanity and its relationship to the environment and to itself. I am concerned with war and homelessness and poverty, which I believe result from the loss of our sense of who we are and how we fit into our world. These concerns are not always evident in the work, but they are always there as subtext,

In my more recent tapestries and especially in the most recent series, Cover Ups, my themes are more demanding and my tapestries have become more explicit. I weave people in decaying environments who are out of touch with each other and their feelings and requiems to the spirits of dead birds which represent the animal and human victims of senseless killing. I weave people whose faces are covered by their clothing, challenging the viewer to look beneath the costume to discover the person within.

Ms. Heller has exhibited widely over the past 25 years, locally, nationally, and internationally. Her tapestries have been the subject of several magazine and newspaper articles and have been featured in two books on tapestry weaving. Barbara is an avid promoter of the art of tapestry. In 1992, she was invited to participate in an international tapestry forum in Poland, and in 1993, she organized an international symposium, "Making a Place for Tapestry", held in Vancouver. Ms. Heller sits on the ATA Board, is an international representative to the ITJ and contributes articles to various journals. She founded the Canadian Tapestry Network, which publishes a quarterly newsletter she co-edits, and the British Columbia Society of Tapestry Artists (B.C.Stars), a non-profit society which promotes tapestry through exhibitions and lectures.