Happy Place 

Curator: We're looking at "Happy Place" by Lucia Heffernan, an oil painting rendering an animal portrait in a playful, contemporary style. Editor: Immediately, I'm struck by the sheer joy radiating from this image. The impasto technique really emphasizes the texture, the dog's fur practically leaps off the canvas. It's playful, a little chaotic even. Curator: Right. The narrative plays into larger discussions about consumer culture, specifically the role of "treats" as markers of joy and reward. It speaks to how such impulses intersect with the ways animals are often anthropomorphized. The dog, surrounded by doughnuts, becomes a symbol for contemporary craving, a stand-in for how easily desires are created and met within capitalist societies. Editor: The choice of medium is interesting, too. Oil paint lends itself well to this glossy, almost edible appearance of the doughnuts. We’re presented with this excess, these carefully painted, tempting treats against the backdrop of this central figure, and it does create a kind of dialogue about, as you said, the manufactured cravings and consumerist drive, especially how it can reflect our current social-economic environment. Curator: And there's a feminist lens to consider here. Consider the ways indulgence, particularly of sugary treats, is often coded female, tied to notions of comfort, self-soothing, but also guilt and shame. How are we positioning this indulgence with our relationship to non-human animals? What social anxieties do images like this reveal? Editor: Precisely. The act of painting, with the use of layering, smoothing, creating an image is about an almost edible scene. In an age of instant images, it feels intentional for Heffernan to invest in the labor of its rendering, underlining how taste is fabricated, produced, then consumed, often blindly. It is labor intensive, much like the fabrication of our desire for that perfect ring of sugary goodness. Curator: I find myself wondering about the ethics embedded in this image, regarding consumption. The dog almost personifies the all-consuming desire, the image challenges viewers to assess their relationship with treats. Editor: I came to it from one angle but after this, thinking about material process combined with gender theory, and social behavior regarding guilt or indulgence – I certainly walk away seeing more than pure, lighthearted humor. Curator: Likewise, my perspective of it being simply identity-driven has shifted thanks to an evaluation of its materiality; it adds depth to an initial read of cute escapism.