Valerie Hegarty

Niagara Falls (2007) Foamcore, paper, paint, wood, glue, gel medium

Valerie Hegarty is destroying some things we think we cherish. Mostly, she asks what happens when ‘beautiful’ objects are destroyed by forces of nature that those very objects represent and/or exalt. Her works bulge with the irony of their supposed destruction: a painting about the infinite meditative sublime seems to have been through a great flood itself. But it's different than, say slashing the Mona Lisa, maybe because these things are distinctly 'American' or that I saw them as a kid at antique shops - they're a different kind of precious.

Renovation (2002) paper, cardboard, paste, paint, 8' x 14' x 14'

Or maybe it's about entropy, and shelf lives of ideals. It's all well and good to revere the natural world until you're attacked by a swarm of beavers. See more here and here.