Caroline Heffron
Each week on our News Blog we release features on two of our Paradice Palase members, spotlighting their practices and involvement in the arts community. This week, we had the chance to hear from Caroline Heffron. Heffron has been pursuing painting and ceramics since she graduated with her MFA from School of Visual Arts. She is currently exhibiting work in “Echoes of the Ancient” at 56 Bogart Street #122 Brooklyn, NY 11206, on view until this Sunday, 8/7.
Caroline Otis Heffron lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her painting process begins with drawing and collage that combine images of urban workers, street performers, and people reacting to life in public spaces. Flea markets, carnivals, museums and street fairs are blended and compressed to make complex urban spaces filled with animated humans, gestural statues, and symbolic cultural objects . New connections emerge through reworking layers of information and the exploration of unique connections formed through relationships of color and gesture.
Heffron’s paintings have been shown at Kent State University, Long Island University, and La Mama La Galleria among others.
PP: Where are you currently living/ working and what are you working on?
CH:I live in Brooklyn and make oil paintings in my home studio. I work primarily in my basement,
which has been fine during Covid, but I love light and looking outside. Recently, I set up a second
desk by a window in my bedroom, which is only for water based ink and pencil work. It is really
great to have the mediums divided into different spaces.
I combine ink, Flashe, Fluid Acrylics and pencil in various layers for my small watercolor works,
oil paintings are on canvas or panel. My paintings they are based on photographs I take in
museums, street fairs and flea markets. The images are reinvented with decorative arts or
ornamental architecture so they take on an invented collage space. I highlight women and their
body language.
PP: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your creative practice?
CH: My early influence was my Aunt, Maize Bausch who was an adventurous artist and intellectual.
Her profound thinking about the artistic process and dedication keeps me inspired. Historically, I
identify with many Surrealist Women artists and Paula Rego who I just saw at the Venice
Biennale. It was an art pilgrimage to see so many historical pieces in one place, curated so
beautifully. Current artists I try to see in New York galleries for their themes and painting investigations
are Robin F. Williams, Dominique Fung, Maria Fragoso, and Jesse Mockrin to name a few
women artists.
12 x 16, oil x panel
PP: What body or piece of work of yours is your favorite, or the most meaningful to you?
CH: Although my themes of the figure are consistent I experiment with colors, texture, layering and
edges which make each painting a unique experience. Some of these details don’t show up on
Instagram because they are subtle. Most of the faces I paint are archetypal or amalgamations of
various people however I recently painted a modern portrait of one of my ancestors Mercy Otis
Warren who was a playwright and published historian in Colonial Times.
PP: What role do you think artists have in society?
CH: I have been an artist who has struggled in these last few years to not be overwhelmed by news
and suffering. Ultimately, my determination to contribute to a discourse about humanity has
grown stronger. In addition, I want to help foster art communities and find interesting
opportunities for collaboration. I find inspiration in the relevance of historically underrepresented
people in the arts who have stories that are still being discovered.
