Artist, Peter Thompson, looked up from some new cyanotypes by Iowa City photographer (and Coe adjunct instructor), David Heffner. With a big smile on his face he pronounced them to be, “SO Northern European Renaissance!”

We are accustomed to the easy connections we make to somewhat obscure, visual references. That we can do this, forges a comraderie based on visual delight with many colorful personalities far smarter than we. In Heffner’s “Ship of Fools” suite, there is indeed that unmistakable tie to the unwavering Northern European look at the weaknesses of Man. Portraying himself as the universal fool, Heffner takes on a Breugelian peasant’s doltish persona. He puffs mightily at a cigar as an absurd rat-catcher, and, shaman-like, poses somberly in front of a wall of hub-caps. The images are nothing less than a humorous and forthright indictment of our all too human sense of self-importance.

(And a couple of Northern Renaissance images you might like to take a look at, as a point of comparison: The Harvesters (I have to point out the
passed-out-drunkeness of the harvesters in the foreground, Bruegel’s
characteristic nod to the fraility of our species!), The Painter and the Buyer, and Hunters in the Snow, all Pieter Bruegel the Elder.)