Opening Day - Hidden in the Earth

Rose Heineman's soft pencil and white ink drawings on black fields are her portraits for underground mineral accretions. In terracotta and turquoise tones, Rose divines diagrams of banded agate growing within ribbons of water or white-hot lava washing by. These may very well be accomplished cave paintings of metamorphic formations, waiting to be unearthed.

Amateur archaeologists are welcome to stop by the Mauve-hollow and let their eyes adjust to the dark.

About the show:

This new series of drawings is part of the evolution of my drawing practice. The white ink and colored pencil on black paper is something I began working with a few years ago. I like the graphic contrast created with these materials. I was originally concerned with finer line drawings of abstract shapes and forms, however this new series is more sculptural or solid in form.

The compositions of the new drawings continue to grow spontaneously out of themselves, building intuitively. I thought about the shapes of stones and water, or plants growing or moving around those stones, as well as fossils and geodes hidden under the earth. The colored pencil lends itself to a soft, powdery, stone-like quality on the black paper as the white ink lines flows around the colored pencil shapes. I attribute the layering of colors around some of the shapes to the layers of minerals compressed in rocks and geodes.

Walking in nature, I find an infinitely interesting and creatively inspiring alive quality, which takes some tuning into, as in meditation. I hope to impart some of this intimate knowledge through the process of creating this work.

About the artist:

I was born in San Francisco, however I grew up in Connecticut and Maine. After high school I attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD where as an undergrad I became interested in video and fiber arts primarily, however I also studied painting and drawing.

In 2005, I began drawing from nature and interpreting these forms. My drawing evolved into an expression of the intangible, intuitive knowledge I initially investigated in nature and then found entirely within. Because I draw so many lines, I relate my process of drawing to a spider spinning a web, playfully coming into focus.

See more of Rose's art at: http://roseheineman.com/

Join us at Mauve? this Friday, April 27th, at 7pm, to meet Rose Heineman and tour the show.