My art work has covered the gamut, from drawing, textural pieces, sculpture, photography, printmaking to painting. Many of my art pieces combine processes.
Since 2004, I have tried to limit the processes, take images from memory, keep the work simple and direct. My work almost always has a strong personal intent, maybe not always obvious. It is, sort of, a “Visual Haiku Attitude”.
The paintings and prints are about my life, maybe an autobiography. There is no conscious logic in the acquired choices to create this body of work. It is like looking at a beautiful spider web glistening in the sun light, visually interesting, draws the viewer in, then the spider strikes through a subliminal message.
A series of prints or paintings develop, usually when I travel. In 2007, I visited Hudson Bay, Canada. A series of seven original prints developed and seven poems. In 2008 the “Museum Series” arrived on canvas. People and animals looking at paintings in the museum, so far, there are seven large paintings, probably more to come. I don’t know where the inspiration for these paintings came from. These paintings seem to have their own soul, I really can’t explain them.
After several years, I have noticed that when I see one of my old paintings somewhere, I no longer have the same feelings towards it, it has become its own entity. I have run across old work and been surprised that I was the artist or creator. I have to ask myself, does a painting create itself?
E-mail: jmackaig@cox.net
Ms. Schaafsma-Smith is an artist and arts educator with over 20 years experience. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Teaching Credential from the University of California, Riverside and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a passionate advocate for art and art education. Her autobiographical narrative art has been featured in one person and group exhibitions and is the public collections of UCR and UCLA. She has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, most recently Juror’s Award in Open Exhibition 2011, Ontario Museum of History and Art and First Prize in ACE 2011, Palm Springs Art Museum. In July 2011, she participated in Connecting Collections at the Guggenheim, Metropolitan, MoMA, and Whitney in New York City. She serves on the boards of the Stokoe Museum and Innovative Learning Center and the SCA Project Gallery. She lives and works in Riverside California.
Artist Statement
Ever since I can remember I have loved art. I loved to draw and drew on everything. I explored this love and honed my artistic skills in a variety of media at Riverside City Collage (A.A.), University of California, Riverside (B.A.), and University of California, Los Angeles (M.F.A.). The theme of my work is narrative in nature. It is the visual story of the memories of my experiences.
My current work is in the medium of printmaking. I am specifically interested in exploring monotypes and monoprints (one-of-a-kind printed images). House Dress and House Call are monoprints on paper. The matrix (base) for these prints is a cardboard house shape that I discovered while unpacking school supplies. The matrix was rolled with soy-based ink and printed on rag paper by running both through a printing press. The prints were then embellished with additional materials.
House Dress was embellished with two pieces of printed silk tissue that were stitched together on a sewing machine. Additional rag paper was stitched to the house print paper in order to accommodate the sewn tissue. The two papers were joined together with tape. This print was inspired by the memory of my mother sewing extra fabric to clothing and letting out hems to accommodate growth.
In House Call the cardboard matrix was printed twice on the same paper. Red thread was sewn onto the paper to join the two images. This print is the memory of my courtship with my husband. We both lived in small, old, identical, but mirror image houses on the same street in downtown Riverside. We lived separately in our own houses for several years before meeting each other and making a connection.
Website: froukjeschaafsma.com
E-mail: froukje.schaafsma@gmail.com
Growing up in the Bronx project, I often found myself wanting to get out. I knew that there was more to the world than my confining environment. At a young age, I learned to navigate my way through the city streets and subways using transit maps as my guide and the subway my gateway to explore the city jungle. My thirst to discover new lands and experience new cultures has led me around the world. The maps I held promised routes and passages to travels unknown.
Roaming the city I discovered the Met and the Art Students League, both nurturing my artistic education. Eventually, I attended Fashion Institute of Technology receiving an A.A. degree in Interior Design. This landed me a job designing carpets for Edward Fields. Two years later, I transferred to Los Angeles where I met my first husband. We left L.A. to live in Spain and travel overland to India. Our journey took us to exotic places such as Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. After a year, we returned to Los Angeles, I attended CSUN receiving a Masters Degree in Fine Arts.
Traveling the world and mapping my journeys has been a way of exploring cultures, terrains and enhancing the visible search for adventures. What emerges is a visual exploration of the world around me.
My recent series of paintings reflect my interest in maps, cartography and topography. They do not represent actual maps, but reference a composite collection of locations that intuitively evoke a sense of place. The paintings are constructed on the grid as an underlying structure of poured colored paints, richly layered surfaces that reveal and conceal strata and crust. I am interested in the physicality of landforms and its evidence of time and age as it emerges from the residue of human marks.
BIO
Shelley Heffler is an artist and teacher. Her teaching experience includes Cal State University, Northridge, Otis College of Art and Design, and high school ceramics in Los Angeles.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Shelley discovered the Art Students League at the age of 15 taking drawing and painting classes. She received an A.A. degree in interior design from Fashion Institute of Technology. Painting was her first love and she worked as a carpet designer for Edward Fields. After moving to Los Angeles, she left the country for a year to travel abroad to destinations that were rarely seen and explored by western eyes. Returning to Los Angeles, she attended Cal State, Northridge, studying drawing with Marvin Hardin and sculpture with Robert Bassler.
She received a Masters degree from C.S.U.N. in sculpture and immediately had success with exhibitions at Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Municipal Art Gallery.
Shelley has been teaching ceramics for more than 20 years. She is Nationally Board Certified Professional teacher and mentors new teachers for Los Angeles Unified School District. Her current studio is in Inglewood, California.
EDUCATION
2010 Studies Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA
2009 Studies Penland School of Crafts, NC
1986 MFA California State University, Northridge
1984 BA California State University, Northridge
1972 AA Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY
Email: shelleyheffler@yahoo.com
Website: www.shelleyheffler.com
