Mary Heebner

Full Lotus: Sketches from Ayutthaya

Full Lotus: Sketches from Ayutthaya is comprised of two accordion folded panels of the paintings and sketches printed on Somerset Photo Enhanced Velvet 100 percent rag paper. An accordion folded booklet of journal notes and images printed letterpress on handmade Bhutanese daphne paper are also included.

Artist Mary Heebner said: "When sketching among the ruins at Ayutthaya, Thailand in August, 2002, I used watercolor and graphite to make pictures on both sides of folded paper. I reproduced these two-sided sketches with an Epson 7600 printer, using archival ink pigments. After printing, I drew and painted with graphite and acrylic on each of the prints in the edition. This book is a meditation about creativity and destruction, balance and imbalance, peace and war, as represented by the rose colored paintings of figures seated in lotus position and the drawings of the severely damaged bodhisattva statues at Ayutthaya."

Press: simplemente maria press
Date: 2002
Number and Edition: 23 of 50
Size: 5” x 5”

 

Old Marks, New Marks

Incorporating handmade paper collages and designed as a chapbook, Old Marks New Marks was created in collaboration with Maria Gimbutas and the Joseph Campbell Library at Pacifica Graduate Institute near Santa Barbara. The piece is housed at the Institute, and served as a catalog for an exhibition there in November 1996.

Artist Mary Heebner said: “Collage and work on paper have been my primary medium for over 25 years. My principle teachers in the 1970s were William Dole, Paul Wonner and Masami Kanemitsu. Creating this book gave me the opportunity to link a recent survey of collage paintings together with written descriptions of my creative process.”

Press: simplemente maria press
Date: 1996
Number and Edition: 25 of 50
Size: 11.25” x 10.875”

 

On the Blue Shores of Silence/A la Orilla Azul del Silencio

These 12 poems of the sea by Pablo Neruda are printed in Spanish with English translations by Alastair Reid. Twelve giclée prints from original watercolors by Mary Heebner adorn the pages.

Twelve hand-folded folios of Fabriano Tiepolo papers each contain a different image from the series. The poems are letterpress printed from photopolymer plates on handmade linen paper in Adobe Jenson and Trajan typefaces, and are tipped-on alongside the images. The folios are presented in a linen wrapper painted by Heebner with indigo pulp at Dieu Donné Papermill. The piece is housed in a cloth-covered clamshell box.

Press: simplemente maria press
Date: 2001
Number and Edition: 30 of 50
Size: 11” x 14”

 

Sacred Geography: Sonnets of the Himalaya and Tibet

With sonnets by anthropologist Sienna Craig written in response to a specific place, A Sacred Geography is inspired by the landscape of Tibet and the Mustang region of Nepal.

Artist Mary Heebner said: “The natural colors of the landscape, and, in particular, a sinuous, thousand-foot long wall of boulders etched with Tibetan prayers – mani – and washed in streaks of sacred mineral colors that I encountered in Mustang, Nepal, remained vivid memories. With the main wall in mind, I had formed sheets of paper from abaca and cotton fibers at Dieu Donne Paper, New York City, with Jan Drojarski assisting, and pulp painted each sheet with earthen and metallic pigmented linen pulp, in variations of these striped patterns. The drawing of an ammonite fossil or saligram – relic from an ancient sea that preceded the birth of the Himalayas – is debossed onto each hand-formed sheet.”

Press: simplemente maria press
Date: 2005
Number and Edition: 15 of 20
Size: 20” x 8”

 

Scratching the Surface: A visit to Lascaux and Rouffignac

After receiving permission from the French Ministry of Culture to visit the historic caves of Southwestern France, the six original paintings in this book use the same pigments as ones used over 20,000 years ago to create the original cave paintings. The text is printed letterpress on handmade abaca and kozo papers with an ochre pigmented Torionko paper wrapper.

Artist Mary Heebner said: “Before entering the cave I wear sunglasses, eyes closed, so that my pupils can begin to dilate and prepare for the dark. I am one of five who are permitted 35 minutes inside Lascaux. For all that I will see, there is a reservoir of images I won't even begin to comprehend. I want to siphon Lascaux into my emptiness.”

Press: simplemente maria press
Date: 1998
Number and Edition: 8 of 10
Size: 9” x 12”