A Philadelphia native, Heller studied at the Art Students League in New York after graduating from Bryn Mawr with a degree in social work and art history. She moved to the area of Woodstock, New York, in the mid-1950s and took up ceramics, having contact with art teachers at nearby Alfred University that specialized in the medium. Heller’s art evokes ancient cultures and inner emotions, reminiscent of the Abstract Expressionists. Inspiration could be found in pre-historic cave painting, or such ceramics as the Shaman at right. Her interest in craft (although not utilitarian) and her feminist stance recall the artistic motivations of the 1960s.