Simplemente Maria Press~ California
(Mary Heebner)

Mary Heebner specializes in exquisite portfolio editions and books inspired by her journeys and grounded in a sense of place. Earlier works highlight Icelandic, American Western, and Southwestern French landscapes.

The Tragic History of Hamlet
An Artist's Interpretation of the Classic Text by William Shakespeare
Santa Barbara, California: Simplemente Maria Press, 2008. Edition of 20.

16.5 x 12.5 x 1.75; 120 pages; 20 direct pigment prints of collage paintings printed with archival inks on Somerset Velvet paper. Sleeved in Mingei paper folios. Pigmented flax and abaca two sided chemises, watermarked abaca sheets of "Ophelia" and "HAMLET", and individually pulp painted, and stenciled cotton and abaca sheets used for the title page, created at Dieu Donné Papermill in New York City in 2007. A honeysuckle motif from the Second Quarto frontispiece inspired a skull and flower drawing used for the cover image as the header on each of the folio text blocs. John Balkwill of the Lumino Press printed all the text letterpress, editioned by hand on a Vandercook UNI cylinder press, using Centaur typeface. Balkwill constructed the clamshell box with a red leather spine stamped in gold. The cover of the clamshell box uses Cave Paper from Minnesota, onto which the skull motif is debossed. Letterpress text is handsewn with an amate [Mexican bark paper] cover.

A suite of twenty pigment prints in triptych format created by Mary Heebner as a visual response to William Shakespeare's Tragic History of Hamlet. The prints are placed in kozo paper folios with corresponding excerpts from the play. An "actor's copy" of the entire play is included.

Mary Heebner: "The series of prints that form the body of this project began as collage paintings on paper. My images are an attempt to conjure an emotional response to Shakespeare's play, Hamlet.

"Although this is a play about a son and his father I was drawn to the characters of Gertrude and Ophelia through whom much of the play's conflicts and emotional energy are reflected.

"I made paintings - palimpsests of sorts - by covering over previously printed text, and then scraping back into the surface, leaving one to puzzle out meaning from fragments. In Hamlet, as fragments of vital information are lost, manipulated, or misinterpreted, the dark heart of tragedy is revealed."

Mary Heebner's Hamlet: Book of Dreams by Charles Donelan (from The Santa Barbara Independent): "The alchemy of poetry and painting has always been close to the core of Mary Heebner’s art. While her two books incorporating visual art with the poetry of Pablo Neruda, On the Blue Shore of Silence and Intimacies, are perhaps her best-known efforts, her recent adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet may be the most glorious manifestation yet of her affinity for text. Encased in a gorgeous clamshell box created by John Balkwill of the Lumino Press in Santa Barbara, who also printed all the text, this very limited edition contains 20 direct-pigment prints taken from a series of collage paintings based on the artist’s personal response to Shakespeare’s most famous play. With the visionary splendor and painstaking attention to detail of a latter-day William Blake, Heebner has achieved something very remarkable with this project.

"The individual prints are all in the form of triptychs, with more brightly colored, generally figurative panels at left and right flanking a central, darker image. An initial aesthetic pleasure in the artist’s palette and line provides the foundation for a progressively more nuanced reading of the artwork. For instance, 'Folio #7' is keyed to a bawdy exchange between Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The question that Hamlet asks — 'My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz. … Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favors?' — refers to Dame Fortune, and not a real woman, but Heebner chooses to obscure that fact and the female figure’s face, leaving the anatomical details but depriving the viewer of a certain identification. Fortune becomes a cipher for the other women in Hamlet, as Heebner’s treatment expresses a healthy revisionist impulse toward the play’s often mischievously chauvinistic tone. In an 'Artist’s Note' attached to the package, she acknowledges this tendency to reevaluate Gertrude and Ophelia, identifying them as reflecting 'the play’s conflicts and emotional energy.'

"Every aspect of this project, from the distinctive design and luscious materials to the delicate personal watermarks found throughout, registers the intelligence and wisdom of an artist operating at the height of her powers. It’s a pleasure to see the words of a great writer awakening such a sophisticated and heartfelt response across so many centuries and in a medium not traditionally associated with drama."
$6,500

Old Marks, New Marks
Essay by Carolyn Radlo
1996. Edition 45.

12 x 10” Handmade paper collage with chapbook, in clamshell box. Contains a signed and lettered chapbook together with an original handmade paper collage.

Created in collaboration with the Marija Gimbutas and Joseph Campbell Library, housed at Pacifica Graduate Institute near Santa Barbara, California. The results are a chapbook of writings & images inspired by Paleolithic art and goddess imagery, printed offset, paired with an original, handmade paper collage. The chapbook served as a catalog for an exhibition at the Institute in November 1996. The introductory essay by the Library's archivist, Carolyn Radlo, draws parallels between contemporary and ancient mark making.

Mary Heebner: “Collage and work on paper has been my primary medium for over twenty-five years. My principle teachers in the 1970's were William Dole, Paul Wonner and Masami Kanemitsu. Creating this book gave me the opportunity to link a recent survey of collage paintings together with written descriptions of my creative process.”
$600 (Last three copies)

Deep Thermal
By Clayton Eshleman and Mary Heebner
2006. Edition of 26.

13 x 17"; six poems and six prints. Printed on grey cotton paper.

Six archival signed and numbered pigment prints by the artist and six poems by Clayton Eshleman printed on sheets of grey cotton paper.

Mary Heebner: "What began as a lively correspondence between the poet/translator Clayton Eshleman and me over a year, was generated in part by our shared experiences of the Upper Paleolithic art of the caves of Lascaux and also Alastair Reid's translations for my Neruda book (Alastair nominated Clayton for a National Poetry award, which he received in the late 90's). This evolved into a correspondence in which there were exchanges of images as well as writing. Over 2005-2006 Clayton started sending me poems that he wrote, inspired by my art. I later learned that he had done this with his friend Joan Mitchell and he said that he found a similar gut response to my work. Mind you, there are instances where he 'sees' things in my work that I surely didn't but that in itself really fascinates me. Once a piece of art is out there in the world it is subject to all sorts of interpretation.

"What resulted is a selection of 6 poems, that he composed in direct response to looking at my paintings. I was intrigued with this enough that I decided to produce a modest portfolio. I kept the format of separate sheets of paper, as this was truly how our correspondence took shape. I used the title of one of the paintings…for the book's title. This piece is also the cover for his latest book of poetry An Alchemist with One Eye on Fire (Black Widow/Commonwealth Books).

"I see this as a collection of correspondence. Obviously one could frame the individual prints/letterpress poems but I like the nature of it in a casual portfolio, that one can peruse, sliding pages easily to the side, so image and word can be appreciated both apart and together."

Clayton Eshleman: “I am interested in what I see in paintings as well as what the paintings see in me. I try, facing works of art, to inhabit a “between” in which a reciprocal distillation can occur. I found in certain Mary Heebner watercolors a resonating psychic stimulation, and attempted to improvise on the words, narrative nodes and associational “chains” they flushed forth.”

Ekphrastic poetry by a distinguished poet inspired by the work of a distinguished artist.
$1,200

Seeking the Open Heart
By Michael Hannon
2002. Edition of 75.

Individually painted covers. The paintings were, made specifically to print the edition of Giclée images on Somerset Radiant White paper using Pinnacle Gold archival inks at Duganne Atelier, Santa Monica, California. The text is printed letterpress from photopolymer plates, typeset in Baskerville MT. It was printed and handbound at The Lumino Press, Santa Barbara, California. The paste-papers for the cover were created by Mary Heebner. Signed by both Michael Hannon and Mary Heebner.

Ten acrylic and pastel paintings on paper were created in response to a set of poems by Michael Hannon.

Mary Heebner: “This project began in the Fall of 2000 when Michael Hannon visited my studio, and gave me two poems, saying, "see if anything comes to you from these." The following January he returned with more poems and we decided to work towards a book of poetry and art. In the winter I traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand and brought home some mulberry sa paper that I used for a suite of images, responding to Michael's poems.

I tried to create paintings that evoked the rhythms I understood in Michael's poetry. I lived with the poems for months, even taking them with me when I traveled. Then I put the poetry away. I would recall a fragment, at times only a single word, or a memory of the poem's movement, and from that wisp of sensation, would began painting. This freed me up to create images that felt primary and not illustrative. I placed words and images so that they existed in a freer, independent interplay.”
$850

A la Orilla Azul del Silencio/
On the Blue Shore of Silence
Poems by Pablo Neruda
Artwork by Mary Heebner
2001. Edition of 20.

11 x 14 x 2” Twelve hand folded folios of Fabriano Tiepolo each contain a different image from the series. Poems are letterpress printed in Adobe Jenson and Trajan from photopolymer plates on handmade linen paper and tipped-on alongside the images. Folios presented in a linen wrapper painted by the artist with indigo pulp at Dieu Donné Papermill and housed in a cloth-covered, clamshell box. Twelve poems in Spanish with English translations by Alastair Reid. Twelve giclée prints from original watercolors by Mary Heebner.

The rugged Pacific coastline of Chile and the poet's verse inspired Heebner's Isla Negra series of collage paintings. "Neruda was a curator of memory," writes the artist. "He gathered up objects as if to store his thoughts among them." Thus are Heebner's paintings repositories of memory. Forms that she sketched in the poet's Isla Negra living room began to surface in her studio as she saturated thick, fibrous Japanese paper with bluish-grey pigment. She added earthy Sienna tones to draw figures forth from the depth. Oceanic colors and textures thus draw us into deep places, the places Neruda's language also leads.

            Let us look for secret things
somewhere in the world ...
coins of time and water,
debris, celestial ash
and the irreplaceable rapture
of sharing in the labor
of solitude and sand.

$3000

Poetry by Sienna Craig
Art by Mary Heebner
2005. Edition of 20.(out of print)
Chapbook poetry edition available.

In a recent review of their book "A Sacred Geography" I. Murphy Lewis said "Through their art of poetry and book-making, Craig and Heebner lead us across time, across worlds with empty bowls in search of sustenance, "feet shuffle(ing) along slate." And in the end, their work leaves us nurtured, inspired, hopeful: once more, heads erect hearts open, hearts lifted."

Twelve sonnets printed letterpress from photopolymer plates in Democratica on kitakata paper at The Lumino Press. Poems are placed onto handformed sheets of individually pulp-painted paper with in a border of two of the eight sacred Tibetan Buddhist symbols, the Endless Knot and the Conch. The frontispiece is a signed and numbered print, Drifts and Plates. A reader's chapbook with the poetry and commentaries, printed in Spectrum types, is recessed in the bottom of the handmade clamshell box.

This is the latest book from Mary Heebner and is collaboration with the poet and anthropologist Sienna Craig. A Sacred Geography was inspired by the landscape of Tibet and the Mustang region of Nepal. Each sonnet is written in response to a specific place.

The design of the book alludes to traditional Tibetan texts.

               out of an ocean mapped in drifts and plates
            those continental shelves, these shifts of blue
            mountains rose tall as gods in their slow wake
                 and incremental moves bid sea adieu

            turn time round and bottomless floor soars high
               coolest pressure, the sky as it weighs down
                 high earth crevassed in monumental sighs
                 sheds its salt like tears, deliberate ground

Chapbook, A Sacred Geography, with two watercolor embellished prints. $395

Bayon: Sketches from Bayon Temple, Angkor Thom
By Mary Heebner
2003. Edition of 20.

Contains two accordion folded pigment prints, made directly from Heebner's watercolor sketches, on Somerset Velvet rag paper, plus a booklet with a detail of a map from ANGKOR: Guide Henri Parmentier (Saigon, 1950) on the front. These are wrapped in a cotton khataj, a Buddhist ceremonial scarf, and contained within a folded paper box with a thumbnail of one of the BAYON SKETCHES as a label. Prints numbered and signed by the artist.

Mary Heebner: "We spent the day wandering among the Khmer ruins of Angkor Thom, drawn towards the absolute center of this square, walled town; BAYON. What appeared at a distance to be beehive shaped rock formations, were the clusters of towers that crown the temple ruins of Bayon. The towers were built of sandstone blocks, then carved in situ with enormous portraits gazing out in four directions. Some see the faces as Buddha, others Brahma, while others note the likeness of King Jayavarman VII. It was beginning to rain and I found shelter under a carved lintel. The ochre stone shone golden and furtive recesses deepened in the rain. I made watercolor drawings, dipping my brush in the puddle beside me, watching the sky blush and then blacken against these gigantic forms."
$300 (Last three copies)

Full Lotus: Sketches from Ayutthaya
By Mary Heebner
2002. Edition of 50

Contains two accordion folded panels of the paintings and sketches printed on Somerset Photo Enhanced Velvet 100% rag paper plus an accordion folded booklet of journal notes and images that are printed letterpress on handmade Bhutanese daphne paper, that was printed at Lumino Press, Santa Barbara, California.

Mary Heebner: "When sketching among the ruins at Ayutthaya, Thailand in August, 2002, I used watercolor and graphite to make pictures on both sides of two 30" long x 5" high sheets of folded paper. I reproduced these two-sided sketches with an Epson 7600 printer, using archival ink pigments. After printing, I drew and painted with graphite and acrylic on each of the prints in the edition. This book is a meditation about creativity and destruction, balance and imblance, peace and war, as represented by the rose colored paintings of figures seated in lotus position and the drawings of the severely damaged bodhisattva statues at Ayutthaya, also seated in lotus position."

Fifty headless bodhisattvas seated in lotus position became the models for a series of sketches, photographs, and this book, Full Lotus.
$550

Island: Journal from Iceland
By Mary Heebner
1997. Edition of 60.

A portfolio of twelve Giclée prints which were scanned directly from original watercolor and raw pigment monotypes made on Kitakata paper, under the supervision of the artist and printed on Somerset rag paper at Duganne Ateliers, Santa Monica, California. Each image relates to a specific poem and can be seen through the transparent abaca paper enclosure which was handmade by Rie Hachiyanagi, assisted by Gail Berkus. The text, laid out in Galliard by Lucy Brown, was digitally typeset and reproduced from polymer plates and printed letterpress onto the abaca enclosure by Inge Bruggeman. A chemise wrap made with white Kyoseishi and indigo Kozo paper over onyx board contains the set of twelve poems and prints. The collection slides into an acrylic sleeve. Signed and numbered.

Island is Heebner's poetic and visual interpretation of her trek through the volcanic terrain of Iceland.
$950

Out of Print editions from Simplemente Maria:
• Western Trilogy II: Mountain, Canyon, Dune
• Scratching the Surface: A Visit to Lascaux &   Rouffignac
• Sacred Geography, deluxe edition