BIOGRAPHY

Caroline Otis Heffron lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her oil paintings combine images of women as they navigate imaginary urban spaces that reflect their energetic potential. Flea markets, museums, and street fairs are layered to make disorientating and magical places filled with archetypal women, gestural statues, and symbolic cultural objects. Heffron has pursued painting and ceramics since graduating with her MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Heffron’s paintings have been shown at @paradicepalase, Arts Gowanus, SpringBreak, Studioninedee, Kent State University, Long Island University, and La Mama La Galleria, among others.

STATEMENT

My art highlights the legacy of women’s potential by comparing images of women’s bodies with art history and cultural objects in urban spaces. My oil paintings and drawing include archetypal personas that represent women like me: wanderers, collectors, and creators. My process begins with matching images that inspire associations of common gestures and unguarded gazes. The imaginary conversation reflects my dualistic experiences of belonging yet feeling isolated, being vulnerable yet needing to be strong, and remembering to be present but longing for the future. I pose the intertwining figures with traditional and contemporary forgotten muses with an overabundance of ornamental objects. The compressed compositions reclaim and explore the interpretation of the myths, women workers and consumers of culture as the walk along beside me in a connected choreography.The lack of spatial depth and saturated colors are combined to highlight the invented worlds of time travel and the personal introspection of these new muses. My paintings become a theatrical tableau formed into a manageable scale and a focused moment for consideration. as the walk along beside me in a connected choreography.