Interview with Artist Heather Accurso

                 The work of Heather Accurso is truly an oddity in the world of art. It occupies a strange but beautiful, dare I say hopeful, liminal space between fantasy/horror and reality, although our reality is certainly drenched in its share of horror and increasingly realized sci-fi scenarios becoming not so far fetched after all. In a world of war, terrorism- ours and others, mass shootings, gender binaries, sexism, militarism gone amuck, scientific experimentation- both good, bad and we're-not-quite-sure-yet and the looming catastrophe of the fate of our entire planet itself, the world could use a few super-heroin(e)'s. Not the Marvel and DC comic variety, which, caught up as they are in the ever expanding waste filled market economy can probably only ever add as many problems as they subtract, and aren't really that subversive. After all they reinforce binaries, good vs evil, light vs. dark. Rather an odd, mutant, hybrid mixture of Henry Darger meets Kathy Acker/Angela Carter, transcendental super-hero characters who are, as Accurso puts it, "multi… -disciplinary, -cultural, -historical, -species, -perspectival creative Girl Geniuses--Liberal Arts Magicians, symbols of the inner child at work and play." Wouldn't these figures be slightly more subversive than Wonder Woman? At the very least it is harder to pigeon hole their form or location, their immense and gender/genre bending power and the multi-configuring possibilities that they open up in a world hell bent on decreasing possibles and unknowns. Accurso's heroin(e)s are anti-emblems for the new world whose light may be dwindling but whose inner fire still burns brightly.



AHC: Can you tell us a bit about your process, themes & inspirations?

Heather: I’m dedicated to the visual language of drawing.  Using mixed materials on collaged paper has allowed me to work out ideas on the actual piece and to experience a continuous evolution of technique and narrative.

I lived in Chicago until age 33.  The collaged, mixed-media drawings of Henry Darger and the harsh paintings of the Chicago Imagists strongly influenced my iconography.  Themes took a political turn during six years of living abroad in Cologne, Germany (2002 – 2008) which coincided with the onset and escalation of the Iraq War.

​Lately, I spend time thinking up fantastical situations wherein, my model (who is my daughter), overcomes impossible, even deadly, real-life world events, as a transcendental super-hero character.

Big City Girl 2: Books, Feeding Foxes, Science ProjectGraphite, Color Pencil on Stonehenge Paper, 22 x 24.5 ", 1999

Big City Girl 3: Rhino, Weapons, GamesGraphite, Prismacolor Pencil on Stonehenge Paper, 22 x 29 ", 1999

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AHC: Could you talk a little bit about the role of the baby girl in your work, and also about the role that art plays in fighting back creatively against regressive societal expectations of both gender roles and identity issues? 

Heather: Child beings have dominated my work since the early nineties.  Their Cherub, Christ, Buddha or Fairy-like appearance expresses different ideas per series.

In the Mutants Series (1993 - 98), nude female baby figures sport tribal tattoos and fashion…part human, part animal, drawn with precision, they float in blank negative space, as if observed, actual specimens.  The images are quite sexual, but not sexy. Many contradictions coalesce.  I was contemplating art historical images of the baby Jesus, and cherubs.  I was also thinking about the female figure in art, and what was missing, what gaps I could fill.  Their gaze is direct, their eyes meet the viewer’s.  

These creatures are not good or evil, passive or aggressive, simply un-definable and powerful in their pure un-acculturated state.

​The Creators and Big City Girls (1998 – 2001) are active with animal counterparts in horror vacui settings of paraphernalia.  They are multi… -disciplinary, -cultural, -historical, -species, -perspectival creative Girl Geniuses--Liberal Arts Magicians, symbols of the inner child at work and play.

I broke away from the girl symbol in order to focus on the head with the Cherubic Intervention series (2004 – 2016).  I remember thinking I was drawing a boy’s portrait for months, only to realize the source was a photo of a girl baby while examining another printout with text.  This cherub energy pitted against threats to the world is unisex!

Alas, I had a baby girl in 2008, who enjoys collaborating and posing for the series in progress entitled Fairy Heroes.  I would have happily used a boy figure, if I had a son, for he could also express wisdom, courage, humor and hope for the future of the world.  Still, this world can definitely use some more strong images of girls.

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"For the Drone Children"
Gouache, Color Pencil, Graphite, Pastel, Marker on Collaged Stonehenge Paper, 33 x 45", 2014/15, "Fairy Heroes" Series

Potato and Two Views Graphite, Prismacolor Pencil, Watercolor on Paper, 18.5 x 22.5", 1998

"Guardians" Gouache, Graphite Pencil, Color Pencil, Pastel on Stonehenge Paper, 35 x 49", 2014, "Fairy Heroes" Series


AHC: Who are some of your influences? Is there anyone outside of the art world who has had a huge impact on your work, writers, filmmakers, philosophers etc? 

Heather: The world’s current events are my endless source of concern and inspiration.  I listen to NPR while drawing.  The ideas roll in continuously:  war, terrorism, the environment, poverty, human rights and the plight of children.  Diane Rehm and Terry Gross are my favorite radio hosts, so thorough, intelligent and compassionate.

Children’s literature and illustration have been a key resource, specifically in providing an entertaining formula that I can twist with a dose of reality.   Essentially young heroes and their animal companions face and resolve conflicts with their hearts, intellects and white magic, in fanciful outfits and settings of course.  

I fell in love with extinct animals while teaching drawing classes at the University of Michigan’s Natural History Museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where we have lived since 2008.  In recent drawings, the extinct animal cohorts, juxtaposed with crises of our era, represent the temporal nature of life.

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"Bus/Bomb" Watercolor, Color Pencil, Graphite, Pastel, Acrylic on Collaged Stonehenge Paper, 32.5 x 42", 2007, "Cherubic Intervention" Series​

Reclamation Graphite, Color Pencil, Watercolor on Paper, 26.5 x 25", 1995​

Highrise - Plane Color Pencil, Graphite, Pastel, Watercolor, Acrylic on Stonehenge Paper, 21 x 17", 2006


AHC: Do you have any upcoming exhibits or new projects you'd like to tell people about?

Heather: I’m just finishing up a drawing begun in 2007 for Gallery Project’s upcoming dual-site show entitled “Re: Formation”, in Toledo and Ann Arbor, August through October.  Here is a link to the show statement--http://thegalleryproject.com/

The piece is called The Gun Fairy.  The Virginia Tech killing was the catalyst; that’s him holding the gun.  Originally, the full figure of the murderer was included.  I tore him out, so the pointed gun became a universal symbol.  Almost ten years later, I resolved the other half.  

The Fairy/Undertaker/Grower of the gun-stopping giant lotus is based on a choreographed photo of my daughter.  Some process photos are provided.  The Placerias dinosaur is carrying an Etruscan burial urn, which doubles as a fairy house.  This drawing needs a few more delicately blood-stained flowers and the burial hole needs a tweak.

More Fairy Hero series drawings mixed with 3-dimensional found and self-made objects housed in shadow boxes are coming soon.  I have been researching the life and work of Joseph Cornell, and taught a few Shadow Box design courses this past year.  The Detroit art scene is teeming with low-relief assemblage artwork, which has also been influential.  

​I’ve been drawing little shrouded corpses for years, that I make myself with twisted fabric, (see The Gun Fairy and For the Drone Children).  Soon, these small-scale sacred bodies will be nestled in front of the 2-dimenional background images.  Stay tuned.  I’ll upload new pieces on Flickr in the coming months!

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All images © Heather Accurso

To find more of Heather's work and for further information visit her website at www.heather-accurso.de/

And for more recent work visit her Flickr page at www.flickr.com/photos/specimyn/