About Heike

About Heike Stucke

Heike earned a M.A. (C. W. Post Campus) and B.A. (Brooklyn Campus) from Long Island University. She majored in Clinical Psycho-Art Therapy. Her provocative thesis “Vincent Van Gogh from a Clinical Psycho-Art Therapy Viewpoint” analyzed Van Gogh’s traits, generic attitudes, experiences, struggles, ecstasies and torments in relation to his disease, art and pilgrimage towards wholeness. An extensive reference of her research was included in “Frontiers of Neurology and Neurosciences, Vol. 19 – Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists” (2005).

Her recent autobiography,
“Illuminations, Eifel Memoirs”(2008)
describes her candid experiences during and post WW II and is dedicated to her seven inquisitive grandchildren. It has been reviewed as a richly painted canvas lyrically depicting her first eighteen years.

Heike presents a wide scope of clinical psycho-art therapy applications on artists ranging from Van Gogh, Gauguin, Munch, Cezanne, Delacroix, Rembrandt, Kahlo to the German Expressionists (Der Blaue Reiter and Die Bruecke). Coupled with her research and experience in psychiatric facilities, nursing homes and special educational settings, she is a popular speaker at institutions ranging from the Queens Museum, The Lighthouse, the Queens Botanical Garden, The Temple E-Manuel, The Regional Hospice of Western Ct., North Shore University Hospital to the educational institutions of New York University, Long Island University, CHUV at Lausanne, Switzerland and the Psychoanalytical Institute of Dr. Masterson. Her audiences have been enriched by her approach in these diagnostic evaluations.

Heike is also active artist and her works have been exhibited throughout the Eastern region.

Heike is a member of a variety of professional and civic associations including The Art Therapy Association of New York, various museums, The Queens Oratorio Society where she was honored with the “Conductor’s Circle Award, Newtown Art League and the Women’s Club of Forest Hills where she holds the position of Art Director. She enjoys mountain trekking which provides her the opportunity to paint exotic flowers. One of her highlights was an innovative lecture series at the Hillary School in the Everest/Kumba region of Nepal.

Her current research includes a comparative study of the drawings by the children in Terezin Concentration Camp, 1992-1994 to the children of the Rwandan genocide of 1994,

She is also active in the Appalachian Trail Conference and local environment groups. Her current project is designing and landscaping a Buddhist motive Japanese garden at her New Fairfield, CT home with her husband and seven visiting grandchildren.