This publication documents the mid-career survey exhibition of the work of Julie Heffernan at the Palo Alto Art Center and the Crocker Art Museum. In these lush canvases, we find echoes of our past and warnings about our future. Stylistic references from throughout the history of painting coexist with allusions to our current cultural fascination with consumption and the role it plays in our environment’s devastation. For the artist, her paintings serve both as creative expressions and calls to action, “cries in the wilderness and my attempt to do something.” Despite the foreboding subject matter, a unique power of Heffernan’s art lies in her ultimate hopefulness, her belief in our power to eventually turn things around. Because, as Julie reminds us, “what we can imagine we can manifest.”

Published by the Palo Alto Art Center
Text by Rebecca Solnit
Format: soft cover
Dimensions: 8.75″ x 11.25″
48 page plus cover / 19 color plates
Publication year: 2013
soft cover: $45.00
order number: FAP-129-S