Thoughts on the Psychology of Art: Abstract Art Is a Psychotic Break with Reality
Grounded to Reality Through Representational Art
Pushing the Composition Envelope, Melissa Hefferlin Still Lifes
It is interesting to contrast Hefferlin with Picasso (he is one of my favorite artists). He created some of the best compositions of all time, but he frequently distorted the subjects – like the woman's face, body, and other objects – to make very clever compositional arrangements. But in distorting reality so much he threw the baby out with the bathwater. He was visually saying that reality is a chaos of distorted perspectives that are not true to real life. What is exceptional about Melissa is her ability to tweak these pattern motifs while keeping a realistic perspective, a feat of integration that Picasso doesn't match up to.

