Julie Heffernan Self Portrait as Wunderkabinett Essay

| Julie Heffernan Self portrait as Wunderkabinett | | | 7/2/2013 | Museum Visit Assignment | | | Julie Heffernan Self portrait as Wunderkabinett Museum visit assignment The Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC is a timeless building and a work of art itself. The building was designed with a contemporary style and is an outward expression of its artistic, belongings inside. I visited the Museum on Tuesday, July 02, 2013, at around 2 in the afternoon. I was within the museum for about 2  ½ hours, observing the exhibits. The building itself exceeded my expectations, but the inside took my breath away. Every detail within was elaborate and intended with thought; from the glass windows, to the straight lines of the architecture, to the†¦show more content†¦The artist creates a focal point with the only woman whose face viewers cannot see. The women’s dress appears to have caught on fire and produces luminosity around the chandelier, forming a shadow within the corners of the room, which brings the viewers eyes from the main woman, up to the chandelier, as shown in the picture to the left. Heffernan’s paintings exp ress her untamed imagination with majestic fantasy, dream-like subjects, yet she paints with a very classic technique. When I first viewed The Self Portrait as Wunderkabinett, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel came to mind. Michelangelo illustrates the desire and describes the oneness that humans anticipate with God through salvation. The artists painting technique is traditional, with the sensible and realistic proportions of the human body, the distinguishing lines, the application of shadow, the intricate detail on every object within the painting, and the use of traditional complementary color pairs. Julie Heffernan was born in 1956. She was raised in Northern California but resides in Brooklyn, New York today. She received a BFA from the University of California, Santa Cruz and incredibly, her Masters of Fine Art in Painting from the Yale School of Art. A significant moment that contributes to her talent as an artist was in 1986 where she lived in Berlin for two years, stud ying and practicing constantly during her stay. Her process for creating a new