Julie Heffernan (born 1956 in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

) is an American

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

whose work has been described by the writer

Rebecca Solnit Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) is an American writer. She has written on a variety of subjects, including feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art. Early life and education Solnit was born in 1961 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to a Jewish fa ...

as "a new kind of history painting" and by

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

as "ironic rococo surrealism with a social-satirical twist". Heffernan has been a Professor of Fine Arts at

Montclair State University Montclair State University (MSU) is a Public university, public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls, New Jersey, Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, ...

Upper Montclair, New Jersey Upper Montclair is a census-designated place (CDP), unincorporated community and neighborhood within Montclair in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population for the CDP was 11,565.

since 1997. She lives in New York, New York.

Early life

Heffernan'a family moved when she was five from Illinois and was subsequently raised in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. She is the youngest of four children.

Education

She received a B.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

in 1981 and, in 1985, an M.F.A. in Painting at the

Yale School of Art The Yale School of Art is the art school of Yale University. Founded in 1869 as the first professional fine arts school in the United States, it grants Masters of Fine Arts degrees to students completing a two-year course in graphic design, painti ...

.Artist Profile: Julie Heffernan
, Lux Art Institute. Accessed January 14, 2014.

Career

Heffernan was raised as a Catholic, which influenced the theme of figurative imagery in her works. Her imaginative landscapes feature such elements as exploding cities, castoff gods and garbage, and falling torrents of animals, meteors and gemstones. These elements reflect her view of the world after "calamities" such as Hurricane Katrina and the BP Oil Spill threaten to make it unlivable.Julie Hefferna

''Statement''. Accessed April 19, 2016. Her pieces of artwork have a fantasy like feeling but has a metaphorical meaning behind them talking about issues that are happening around the world during her time she is creating the piece of artwork. Writing in ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'', art critic David Cohen says of Heffernan's work in a 2007 exhibition: "These paintings are a hybrid of genres and styles, mixing

allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

, portraiture, history painting, and still life, while in title they are all presented as self-portraits."David Cohen (September 27, 2007
"Beauty in Flesh & Fur"
''The New York Sun''. Accessed January 14, 2014. In October 2013, she exhibited eleven paintings in her exhibition ''Sky is Falling'' at the P.P.O.W. gallery,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She is the recipient of many grants and fellowships including a

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

grant, a

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

grant, a Fulbright-Hayes grant to West Berlin, and several awards from the

National Academy Museum The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fi ...

.Julie Hefferna

, ''us''. Accessed April 19, 2016. Heffernan, along with fellow Brooklyn-based artist Virginia Wagner, runs
Painters on Paintings
" a blog launched in 2014 for artists to share work that has influenced or inspired them. Her art pieces have been seen throughout the world. The art work is mainly all throughout the United States but in different countries such as Japan and France. Heffernan has had 46 solo exhibitions since 1999 and was a nominee for the "Anonymous Was A Woman" award in 2016. Some of her paintings go for the upper tens of thousands of dollars when they are being sold.

Style

Heffernan uses the traditional method of oil on canvas to create her works. She derives much of her influence from walking, trees, books, and mind-wandering.

Personal life

She is married to Jonathan Kalb, theater critic and professor in the Theater Department at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

. Heffernan is the mother of two sons: Oliver, the elder, and Sam.

References

External links

Lux Art Institute Artist Profile: Julie Heffernan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heffernan, Julie 1956 births Living people Montclair State University faculty University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Yale University alumni American women painters Painters from Illinois 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists American women academics