Blended Family 

Melissa Hefferlin painted this still life, Blended Family, using oils in 2018. In this intimate domestic scene, Hefferlin uses a traditional format to explore contemporary relationships. Still life painting emerged as a distinct genre alongside the rise of the bourgeois home in seventeenth-century Europe. These paintings showcased the owner’s wealth through detailed depictions of material objects, inviting viewers into a world of domestic comfort. Hefferlin subverts that tradition. She places carboys—vessels used for transporting liquids—at the center of her composition. These objects are purely functional, more at home in a shop than a parlor. By rendering her subjects in a deliberately flat style, Hefferlin reminds us that this is an image, not a mirror. As historians, our job is to tease out these threads. We might consult recipe books, household inventories, and even shipping records to understand how objects acquired meaning in different times and places. Only then can we truly appreciate how contemporary artists like Hefferlin engage with the social and institutional history of art.