Shelly Hehenberger

Shelly has worked as a painter and community art teacher since graduating from Indiana University in 1990 with a BA in Fine Arts.  She then recieved a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of Cincinnati in 1994, and now resides in western North Carolina.

Shelly works in wax and oil mediums on wood panel with her pieces ranging in size from 12" x 12" to 30" x 48".  Each piece is mounted on a hand-made wood frame which is painted black and permanently attached. 

"Chaos into cosmos is the general title of my work as I focus on the mysterious process and act of painting, as it relates to the processes and patterns of life existing in the nature that is within us and that surrounds us.  It suggests a connection between the ever-moving cycles of life, and the ever-changing, deeply-layered cycles inherent in the way I work: I begin with seemingly chaotic layers of paint and other medums, but as I work the surface, forms emerge and a cosmos of connections is revealed... They are the suns and moons of life along mountainous crossings, and it is creaton showing me the forms that make snse: branchings and river on the earth and inside our bodies, DNA strands of hope intertwining into levels of the universal connectedness we all yearn for. 

In my work, I feel myself teetering on an edge of tension between the comfort and orderliness of cosmos versus the unknown territory of chaos.  Perhaps chaos is the utter unknown, but is this not what we wake to each day?  The search for cosmos is therefore the purpose of all my working."