Mary Heebner
Artist Statement:
GEOGRAPHY OF A FACE
To draw is to make real. It is the first step toward knowing the thing drawn. It is an intimate act—because the act of drawing slows you down so that hand, eye, mind and object form a close bond.
The emotion carried by a face belies its size. A human face is really no larger than the span of one’s hand. We are so hard-wired to recognize faces, that even two hollow depressions worn in stone can be easily read as human eyes looking back at us.These drawings and photographs were the foundation for a body of work that spans well over a decade. This includes grid collages and scrolls (part of an artists book, Silent Faces / Angkor.)
On New Year’s Day 2001 we are explore the many temples of Angkor, in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I photograph, write, and sketch, returning again during the rainy season, in August 2002. Time-traveling among the ruins of Angkor is to feel the ancient presences within the architecture and myriad sculptures. Human form melds into the structures, and this brings to mind earthen forms such as crevasses, ridges, and trails. I catch sight of a new geography - a geography of faces. When photographing the outer walls of a frieze comprised of row upon row of seated apsaras, I am drawn to the lower, more exposed and largely overlooked part of this tall U-shaped terrace. Although the bas-relief carvings are eroded by time and the elements, these faces, carved exactly to scale, radiate a soulful humanity. In their state of dissolution, they are hauntingly beautiful.
-Mary Heebner
Biography:
Mary Heebner earned her BFA in Art and Literature from the College of Creative Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara, where she studied with Paul Wonner, Charles Garabedian, and Gerald Haggerty. She pursued a Master of Fine Arts, working with her mentor, artist William Dole. In addition to her fine art practice in collage, painting, and drawing, Heebner founded Simplemente Maria Press in 1995. The press unites place-based inspirations and images with studio practice, print, and papermaking to create hand-crafted books that couple her visual art and writing in a variety of formats.
Her checklist includes several collaborative projects with the works of William Shakespeare, Pablo Neruda, Alastair Reid, Sienna Craig, Clayton Eshleman, Michael Hannon, and Stephen Kessler. In 2020, Heebner celebrated 25 years with the catalog Bridging: Image & Word: 25 Years of Simplemente Maria Press. In 2024, she completed her twentieth edition artist's book, Arctic Trilogy.
Heebner's work is held in numerous private and public collections, including the John Paul Getty Research Institute, The US Library of Congress, The New York Public Library, The Fisher Collection, The National Gallery of Art, The British Museum, Fundación Neruda, San Francisco and Santa Barbara Museums of Art, The Universities of California, University of Michigan, Lily Library, Indiana, Wesleyan University, Bowdoin College, Maine, and Columbia University, NYC.
Education:
1977: MFA in Art, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
1973: BFA in Art and Literature, College of Creative Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
Instructors: Masami Kanemitsu, Paul Wonner, Gerard Haggerty