The Drawings of Femke Hiemestra Depict Fairy Tales with Looming Consequences
In a world not so unlike our own, during a time not that long ago, a mother wolf sits comfortably upon an abandoned tree stump in a clearing in the woods. Surrounded by carefully rendered flora and fauna, the creature is positioned upright with impeccable posture and human-like mannerisms. Her hind legs are crossed at the knees as she reads the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood aloud to a pair of misty-eyed pups.
The Chinese characters from this particular translation are illuminated by the drippy candle effortlessly balanced on the mother’s head, offering a bright glow to the immediate space the trio inhabits while making the surrounding foliage appear that much darker. Her pups circle around her howling and crying in disbelief at the story being read. This narrative is one of many that can be seen in the extensive portfolio of acrylic paintings, mixed media pieces, and graphic works by Femke Hiemstra.
Hiemstra is a significant fixture within Pop Surrealism. Her illustrative style is akin to Mary Blair and Richard Scarry. She posses a precision I and naturalism comparable to John James Audubon, which she combines with a hearty smattering of otherworldly symbols, a discernible amount of irony, and compositions similar in temperament to those from the late-fi fteenth and early-sixteenth centuries by fellow Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.
Animals are the primary subjects of Hiemstra’s works, with dogs and cats slated as her favorites and thus reoccurring most often. In art, like literature, animals can challenge perceptions of reality exhibiting an uncanny resemblance to the behaviors of their human counterparts. Hiemstra explains, “I find animals with all their different shapes and forms very interesting and I’m keen to learn about their behavior. In this behavior, I see parallels to the lives of humans—and vice versa—and that triggers my imagination.”
Hiemstra matriculated from art school with a focus on illustration, and subsequently held a career as an award-winning illustrator for several years before choosing to focus solely on her art. For Hiemstra, the biggest difference between her works on paper and her paintings is that drawings take more planning as she prefers to work with the darkest tones of graphite,which makes erasing more than once nearly impossible.
Her paintings comprise multiple layers of acrylic paint, a medium that is fast drying and translucent in nature. Layers of paint are expertly built up by Hiemstra to add depth to every piece, with each layer playing host to another layer of the story like an intricate cake whose flavors have been specially selected by some culinary mastermind so that each bite compliments the flavor before and seemingly introduces you to the next. In her mixed media pieces, Hiemstra trades in canvas for a variety of found objects, harboring a strong affinity for vintage book covers. “I was struck by the beauty of the covers,” she muses. “I loved how they looked with their imperfections and damages, and so I thought they would make an interesting canvas.”
If you’re intimidated about misinterpreting her work, don’t be. Hiemstra says, “With my work I like to invite the viewer to imagine the world that lies inside.”*
This article originally appeared as the special insert section of HI-Fructose issue 29, which is sold out. Get our latest issue in print here.
I find animals with all their different shapes and forms very interesting and I’m keen to learn about their behavior. In this behavior, I see parallels to the lives of humans—andvice versa—and that triggers my imagination.”
Andy Kehoe crafts fantastical mixed-media paintings often featuring strange, antlered creatures that move through forests. There’s an unexpected depth to Kehoe’s paintings due to his process of painting on top of layers of poured resins. Kehoe uses “sculpted elements made of polymer clay into his works, submerging the forms beneath the strata of pigmented layers.” The artist has a new show at Thinkspace Gallery titled "Prismatic."
With “A Volta,” Allouche Gallery looks at the evolution of the legendary b-boy and street artist Doze Green through paintings and drawings. In the show, viewers find an artist who influenced a generation and a transformative moment in his practice upon moving to Brazil. Green was most recently featured in Hi-Fructose's print magazine with Volume 35.
Mike Lee draws neat, compact worlds populated by rotund homunculi. Simplified like Lego characters, his small protagonists navigate their urban landscape, which appears so conspicuously tidy that it resembles a toy replica more so than an actual city. Lee's drawings are small-scale; he utilizes negative space to make viewers zero in on specific scenes. We look into his minuscule world from an aerial view, like a child playing with a doll house or a deity looking down at the unsuspecting mortals on Earth. With his painstaking graphite work, Lee renders the humdrum of the day-to-day with novelty and humor.
Illustrator Mad Meg constructs massive drawings that contain layers upon layers. She often uses insect heads as a recurring visual theme, adapting even pieces from art history into new works and satire. But further than that, pieces like “Patriarch No. 4,” at 39 inches by 79 inches, contain bewildering detail on a micro level.