Studio Visit with Heather Sherman

Last Tuesday I met up with my homegirl Heather Sherman. Heather is in grad school right now at NYU so she makes a lot of art. When not making art in her studio she does things like go to Germany to shoot a vampire flick which she described to me as having “lots of blood and boobs”. She also dedicates community service hours to the city by doing things like getting a coffee with special people like yours truly at the Cake Shop on the Lower East Side. Here are some photos from our excursion:

We saw these old Asian ladies fighting outside which was rad. Then we walked down the street to Greene Contemporary Gallery where Heather works. The art on the walls was rad too. Everything that day was rad.

We left Greene Contemporary on the Lower East Side, grabbed a cab and headed over to NYU where Heather has her studio. Here is some really interesting work by other NYU students on display.

Okay, we made it up to Heather’s studio. This is her giving me the scoop on her latest work. Heather found old slides from a family that lived in New Jersey but moved to Florida I think. They had show dogs and also brandished the occasional fire arm on the front lawn. She has been projecting these slides into illustrations and creating her own dialogue/narrative to accompany the images of this mysterious family. For whatever reason, Heather has also been reading a lot about Adolf Hitler, his companionship with his dog and using such examples to illustrate how humans interact with domesticated pets.

Then we walked around looking at other art and also checking out the great view.

I saw this in the bathroom. Bathrooms that facilitate the brilliant minds of art students are always hilarious…

Learn more about Heather Sherman!

Heather Sherman: A Conversation about Symbology

Heather Sherman received her BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design. While there she co-directed the Crossley Gallery. She is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Fine Art at New York University. When not painting, Heather works at Greene Contemporary here in New York. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Heather for ten years. I started to notice in the past year a reoccurrence of rabbits in her paintings and thought I’d ask about the symbology. Here is the story behind it:

I purchased a Netherland Dwarf rabbit a little over two years ago, on a whim. I had grown up with pets, but never one to call my own. I am extremely attached to my bunny, Silke. In fact, I feel closer to her than I do most people. Like many pet owners, I project a lot of psychological stuff onto my rabbit, like love, trust, intimacy, vulnerability, etc. These are things one would often associate with human relationships, which forces me to examine the bonds I have with people. How are they different? Are they different?

I am interested in the idea of love and how it cannot exist without fear — the fear of losing that which you love. People aquire dogs, cats, fish, etc. all the time knowing full well there is an expiration date. Why? The same can be applied to human relationships. Rabbits vary in symbolic meaning from one culture to another — luck, fecundity, playfulness, fertility, fear, etc. I have taken that symbology and made it my own as a personal iconography. Rabbits, instead of being the focus of my most recent paintings, serve as witnesses to animalistic human relationships.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

My girlfriend on our friend Heather Sherman’s rooftop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Early morning coffee with the wifey in Williamsburg, Brooklyn