Heather McAdams needs no introduction for longtime Reader readers, but I’ll try anyway. McAdams contributed cartoons and illustrations to the Reader for over 20 years, self-published and distributed an annual country music-themed calendar (filled with her original artwork and writing about country and rockabilly musicians) for approximately 30 years, ran the store Record Roundup in Lincoln Square in the 90s, and has organized and hosted too many movie, music, slideshow, and none-of-the-above-themed events to mention. With able assistance from her husband, the musician Chris Ligon, McAdams is a veritable genre unto herself. Recently, she has decided to dip her toes into another art technique.
“Are We Having Fun Yet?” is McAdams’s second show at Bucktown gallery Firecat Projects, but her first exhibition to showcase her paintings on canvas. Painting is a departure from what she’s best known for, but it’s a medium that she’s been exploring in the last few years. While promoting her first exhibition at Firecat in 2019, McAdams was quoted in Chicago Gallery News as saying, “It is my drawings and these more private works that have sustained me and brought me the most satisfaction and pleasure.”
“Heather McAdams: Are We Having Fun Yet?”
Through 5/21: Tue-Sat, 10 AM-6 PM or by appointment, Firecat Projects, 2019 N. Damen, 207-249-9486, firecatprojects.org
As with so many artists, two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic have caused McAdams to pivot, and some of the acrylics in the new show are the result. Longtime fans will have no trouble recognizing McAdams’s hand in this new work. She mixes portraits of favorite musicians and movie stars with self-portraits and pictures of animals, all with a similar sensibility to many of her past illustrations. She has a particular fondness for squirrels and chipmunks. No matter the medium, a McAdams picture always has a sense of humor. Some bend toward caricature while others approach naturalism, but all possess a unique and zany joie de vivre.
The famous people depicted this time around include Elvis Presley, Anderson Cooper, and Joni Mitchell. I was surprised to see nary a sketch of Robert Mitchum. He’s perhaps McAdams’s biggest crush and the subject of several portraits in her 2019 show. Firecat Projects director Stan Klein told me that McAdams intentionally left the big lug out this time. Perhaps, as with any longtime relationship, there are periods when one or the other partner needs time apart. I feel this same way about recurring motifs in my own work. The best way to avoid burnout or overkill is to take long breaks. I always return to those subjects refreshed.
My favorite of McAdams’s acrylics might be the painting titled Baby Weemus and Geese, in which an impassive oversized rabbit sits as a pair of birds fly by. There’s something both wistful and funny about this picture, as if the rabbit is imagining the geese or vice versa. The question of whose dream we see and who’s doing the dreaming is a question I ask while looking at many of this artist’s images.
McAdams’s decision to try acrylics is in line with the idea of renewal by shifting gears. It’s brave for an artist so strongly identified with drawing to venture into painting of any kind. There are myriad challenges for even the most exquisite draftsperson when first picking up the brush. The level of control you are used to with a pencil or pen is almost entirely absent. Every instinct you rely on will betray you. It’s kind of like learning to pedal backwards, or maybe sideways.
Of the 21 pieces in the show, roughly half are acrylics. The rest are done with graphite, colored pencil, and other variegated media. It’s clear that with acrylics, McAdams is still feeling her way. The marks are more tentative, colors more generalized, and, in a few cases, the paintings don’t look entirely finished.
I give her a lot of credit for taking a chance rather than staying on familiar ground. Most artists, especially ones celebrated for a particular style or medium, are content to stay in their lane. If McAdams keeps painting, I have no doubt that by the time she has made enough pieces for another show, acrylic paint will be another sharp arrow in her quiver rather than the slightly awkward implement it is now. Because she has such an esoteric and particular set of interests, finding subject matter will never be a challenge—so she’s already more than halfway there. Now it’s just a question of getting in the reps. I, for one, expect and look forward to a large, full-color acrylic or even oil portrait of Robert Mitchum, in all his glory, within the next few years.
Editor’s note: McAdams will appear with Ligon at Chris & Heather’s Lil’ 16mm Film Festival, three screening and music events scheduled during May, June, and July this year. The debut event is open to those 21 and up, and happens Thursday May 5 at 8:30 PM, at FitzGerald’s, 6615 Roosevelt in Berwyn. Tickets are $15 and available in advance through FitzGerald’s website.
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