Tayo Heuser's paintings are characterized by intricate geometrical configurations of exquisitely fine lines - in pencil, ink, oil, acrylic, gold - over an airy open background of infinite space. Proportioned to the body, the works allow the viewer to step in, into her fresh etheric worlds of fine swirling currents and Tiepolo-like skies. The work Vesper expands over twelve feet, its light blue, grey, and white curves sweeping through the atmosphere, and likened to the deep reverberations of a heavenly gong. Here and there over the surface are tiny sculptures of golden tears, evoking sacred rain, or gratitude, or awe.

Heuser's primary subject is the sky, and the connection of self to the sky, gazing up and pondering the ineffable in this dance of life. She intends all of her pieces to express hope. And they do.

Woven into Heuser's delicate abstract constructions are allusions to life situations, experiences, stories, now enhanced by the recent introduction of figurative elements. Interlocking horns describe the resolution of conflict, upraised hands the arrival of help, or the human journey itself evoked with paddles, ladders, circles, layers, levels, directional arrows. Joyous-like circles, which the artist calls "the circus of life," are carnival colored and rotating as merry-go-rounds. Beyond the Window, created over a period of two years during the pandemic lockdown, has multiple layers of obscured writing and images of imprisonment. Subjects of her installation-performances, often involving audience participation, have approached the revelation of secrets, or admitting one's bad thoughts. Feelings ranging from focused quietude to ordered frenzy are expressed, but always resolving in hope, in the sky when the interior of self connects to the vast cosmos "where the supreme beings live."

An aspect of Heuser's work is extensive technical experimentation. She often makes her own paper, sculpts with paper pulp, and incorporates a range of materials from wax to glass. Seeking to learn the art of burnishing paper, an ancient near-eastern technique used in sacred texts, Heuser located the one person in North America who still knew it, an older Turkish artist. This labor-intensive technique includes wetting and stretching paper over a board; applying in different layers cooked wheat paste, alum, gelatin, egg white and soap; and burnishing the surface with a special agate stone to create a deep sheen. The result is a beautiful shining and sturdy surface on which her fine ink lines virtually float, creating an otherworldly effect.

Born in Washington DC to a diplomat, Heuser grew up on the African continent, in Tunisia, Libya, the Sudan, and Ivory Coast. As a child, she learned Arabic calligraphy, writing with a small steel nib which she still uses today. Colors and patterns were everywhere, in tiles, textiles, pottery, adornment, brickwork, and in the grand Roman ruins. These geometrical formations, now in her artwork, seem so deeply imprinted in her physical body that she draws them unconsciously from the inside of herself. Also during these formative years, Tayo was exposed to the deep spirituality and shamanistic practices of the African continent.

Her first sojourn in the United States was when she went to college at Rhode Island School of Design.  

Heuser has exhibited extensively and is in innumerable museum, corporate, and private collections.

See www.tayoheuser.com.