NORWICH – The Chenango County Council of the Arts, Norwich, announces the opening of the first gallery show in its 2009/10 season. The exhibit features the works of Haley Hefetz and Caitlin Barret, both of whom received their Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the New York State College of Ceramics School of Art and Design at Alfred University.

Haley Hefetz grew up on Long Island and draws her inspiration from people in her life and the connections she shares with them. Her new body of work focuses on the portrait and the immediacy of human connection. The work celebrates the universality of empathy and invites the viewer to share in this humble equation. Haley currently lives on Long Island and is planning her next bold move.

Caitlin Barrett was born and raised in Smithtown, Long Island and has been painting and drawing for eleven years. Focusing mostly on painting, Caitlin has also used photography and printmaking processes to express herself. Her work often incorporates many different types of drawing media like graphite, crayon, colored pencil and markers interlaced and overlapped with acrylic or oil paint. Saturated in color, and often possessing a lingering sense of melancholy, Caitlin’s work often uses the body as a metaphor to express complex emotional, physical and psychological states and how they influence each other.