“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.”
Albert Einstein

Her work is dense and delicate, precise and particular, yet it opens itself up to many interpretations. Viewers and patrons have written e-mails or confided in hushed conversations that a certain detail speaks directly to them.

Hofheinz is pleased that her paintings have touched those who experience them, but she does not presume to interpret the experience for others. Their relationship with a given work is their own -- she is only the doorkeeper.

When viewers enter that door, there is a sense of timelessness, yet familiarity. It is as if myths or much-told tales have come to life in a transcendent universe.

Her research may include paintings of the Flemish Masters, stories of saints and sinners, myths, fashion magazines, scientific writings about animals and birds, modern and ancient poetry, calligraphy or human anatomy.

She has been known to visit the zoo, design and fabricate a costume for a chosen model to wear, so that she can see how the shadows fall, or immerse herself in the music and culture of a particular period.

Hofheinz goes to great lengths to make sure all of her creations stand the test of time. From tempering and texturing canvasses to priming and sealing wooden panels thereby ensure archival preservation to adding intricate finishing details, she is meticulous.

“Perhaps no one will know,” she says, “but I do.”

And that is so with everything she creates. From the feathers on a small bird, to the wisps of a poem to the shadow that falls on satin at a certain time of day, it is all there. She makes sure of that.

So that when her viewers enter the door to her creations, the experience will be rich in detail, full of hidden treasures and well worth the journey.