Julie Heffernan’s Whether You Fall (North Gallery) explores the pervasive sense of malaise in the world and the larger forces that shape our lives. As Heffernan writes, “This particular malaise is evident not only in the stories we hear daily—whether in the media, around dinner tables, or in conversations with loved ones—but also in how remarkably new these stories are to history. They form an alarmingly different backdrop to human life: the sick trees in Yosemite, the yellow haze on Cape Cod from California’s burning forests.”
In her lush, intricately detailed canvases, Heffernan reflects on environments that are both unsettling and beautiful. She notes, “Everything seems to be bursting out of its skin, too ripe to be contained, and then withers. My newest paintings are a way of organizing intuition through engaged randomness—a kind of call and response. Without preliminary sketches to guide me, I dive in, sometimes spilling paint, sometimes working from older paintings I never fully resolved. The aim is to get lost and find my way out. Rough marks accumulate, forming shapes and suggesting spaces, with detours and pathways that lead the eye into unpredictable places. I stumble into them and respond as the events unfold, altered by the paint. When the result is succinct, it rises to the level of embodied thought. That’s when I know I’m getting somewhere—when mind and hand are working together to create meaning.”