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Hollis Heichemer
Diptych #5 and #6, oil on board, 5 x 10 inches
Hollis Heichemer: In her abstract compositions, Heichemer explores the ways in which light, color, and form can coalesce to evoke a range of emotional, physical, and psychological sensations. Often these sensations relate to particular experiences, making her works both personal and universal in their suggestions of feeling, whether hopeful, joyous, or tragic. Of her work Heichemer, has said, “I’m interested in the moment that something shifts. The sudden disruptions, when we’ve moved from one second to the next but in that instant something inexplicable has happened. We’ve seen something; felt something; our imagination has been sparked; a perspective has been altered; and we’ve changed.”
Heichemer is often inspired by her runs through the wooded areas around her home in New Hampshire. Letting her mind wonder, she is equally compelled by the movements and shapes that appear and dissipate in her peripheral vision as she moves through space and by the beauty of the natural environs in which she finds herself. These moments form the basis of her work, which she develops over long stretches of time, adding and removing delicate lines, thick brushstrokes, and wide swaths of color. Together, these elements suggest something stirring below the surface plane—just beyond the viewer’s reach. The contours of representational elements emerge and dissolve in the motion of her gestures, making her works both dynamic and elusive.
Heichemer is often inspired by her runs through the wooded areas around her home in New Hampshire. Letting her mind wonder, she is equally compelled by the movements and shapes that appear and dissipate in her peripheral vision as she moves through space and by the beauty of the natural environs in which she finds herself. These moments form the basis of her work, which she develops over long stretches of time, adding and removing delicate lines, thick brushstrokes, and wide swaths of color. Together, these elements suggest something stirring below the surface plane—just beyond the viewer’s reach. The contours of representational elements emerge and dissolve in the motion of her gestures, making her works both dynamic and elusive.