“Having an artistic practice requires that one will not only reflect on life, but also use artistic media, means, skills and conventions to create a metaphor for life. My interest lies in the expressive force of mark making.

In the time that has elapsed since my childhood on Shelter Island, my life has grown profoundly. I have been given such a wealth of experiences and influences on which to reflect, and therefore use them to create that metaphor. Art, like music, does not rely on narrative for its meaning.”

__________________

About the Bura Series:

The Bura is a powerful, cold, dry wind that moves from the Dinaric Alps down to the Adriatic Sea creating chaotic, gusty conditions impacting fishing, sailing, and local life.  

As a first generation American born to a Croatian father, the Bura is also a connection to my life growing up on Shelter Island, NY, surrounded by the mercurial conditions of the bay waters that I spent exploring in my youth.  My father, Sam Curko, kept fishing diaries that documented  fishing trip dates, time, tide, weather conditions, in addition to what was caught and who was on board.  Reading his diaries became the impetus for these paintings that explore my love of the water; it’s  turbulence and transformation.

Heidi Curko, 2026