Paula
Heisen
Media:
Painting, Drawing
Studio Location:
43-01 21st Street, Long Island City, NY 11101
Room/Studio#
302
Website:
Artist Bio:
A painter with studios in New York City and the Catskills, I have exhibited my work throughout the United States, with solo exhibitions in New York City, Milford, PA, Lexington, NY and Houston, TX. I received my MFA from the Yale School of Art and my BA from the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara. I also attended the New York Studio School and the Skowhegan Summer Program. Among the grants and awards I’ve received are three Mercedes Matters Awards from the New York Studio School, an Elizabeth Foundation Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, a Joan Mitchell Emergency Grant and an Ingram Merrill Foundation Grant. I have received scholarships to Yale, the Skowhegan Summer Program, the New York Studio School and UC Santa Barbara. I’ve taught at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC), Lehman College (Bronx, NY), Oxbow Summer Program (Michigan), Yale University’s Summer Program (New Haven, CT) and at UC at Santa Barbara.
Artist Statement:
Working on the parallel tracks of still life and landscape, I am captivated by the mysterious drama of light and dark. Raised in Southern California, I played in suburban yards with sun-carved zones of dazzling brights and cool depths. Indoors, I was transfixed by the film noir classics that were staples of 1950s television.
Painted in and around my garden in the Catskills, the landscapes distill the northern light and moisture-laden air of the Schoharie valley into images that combine memories of my California childhood with the strange foreboding I feel in the northeastern countryside. The still lifes are painted in my Long Island City studio. A kind of cabinet of curiosities, it is filled with natural history items, cultural artifacts, bins of fabric and kitschy detritus. I often use spot lights to create the same slashing areas of light and dark that I search for in the landscape. The intersection of these two paths lies in the perceptual and emotional appropriation of light: I hope that the precision of tone creates the vivid reality of a dream.