ABOUT

            From her studio days in the 1980’s at Montserrat School of Visual Art, in Beverly, Massachusetts, Heidi Daub has doggedly maintained an independent and individualistic approach to her art that reflects a temperament derived from a thorough knowledge of and an adherence to the vocabulary of Modernism, complemented with an imaginative and innovative approach to her art that has not been seen in Maine for a long time. Indeed the paintings of Heidi Daub are arguably some of the most distinctive and intriguing that have appeared in and out of Maine during the last ten years. Her style, with its unmistakenable identity, make her paintings a challenge both to the eye and to the mind. Yet the elements of her paintings are simple and familiar, appealing equally to adults and children. But the meaning of her paintings, paradoxically, are concealed within those same simple and familiar elements and elude immediate comprehension. And that for the viewer is the challenge of her art.
        Daub’s paintings defy easy classification. Are they landscapes or narratives or a meshing of the two? Are they painted metaphors, symbolic narratives or even surreal experiences? Clearly she combines elements directly taken from the natural world, but there are unexpected surprises too. She often includes elements in her “landscapes” that are usually found in still lifes. An irresistible narrative quality also informs her paintings and her motifs fairly beg to be “read” as personal statement.
        Daub has assimilated the characteristics of Modernism so completely to her own artistic purposes, she seems to have come to it naturally. She is one of a small number of Maine artists who work with it convincingly. She has created a style that is personal, idiomatic, and singularly hers. Nature is always her starting point, always her vehicle for expressing and shaping her personal visions. Her imagery is thus always recognizable as belonging to the world of appearances, regardless of the particular configuration she may give them. And though she employs the vocabulary of representationalism, her painted language is conditioned by the grammar and syntax of Modernism and abstraction. One of her gifts is her ability to combine representational and abstract elements without making the former obvious or obtrusive.
        The art of Heidi Daub is unquestionably a rare experience, the kind we are not likely to see again for some time. Her ability to translate personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings into artful images that are at once rich in poetic associations and probing in enigmatic content are what make the paintings of Heidi Daub memorable and worth seeking out.

                                                                                                             -Lyle Roger North