The paintings of Julie Heffernan are a constant dilemma of opposites between the gorgeous and the grotesque, attraction and repulsion, with a bounty of enormous amounts of wealth and waste of resources, energy and lives. Each one of Heffernan’s figures are heavily draped with the carcasses of animals, strung with rose-webbing, bejeweled with medals and encircled by heads of state. As the artist’s frantic imagery heightens to a climax, each woman gazes at the viewer with serene calm. Heffernan received her undergraduate degree in painting and printmaking from University of California and her graduate degree in painting from Yale University. She has received a Lila Acheson Wallace award, NY Foundation for the Arts award, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fulbright-Hayes Grant. Heffernan will be showing at P.P.O.W. Sept. 20-Oct. 20 in New York City.