Valerie Hegarty (born 1967 in Burlington, Vermont) is an American artist know for paintings, sculptures and installations that critically engage with art history, evoking specific canonical works and artists or violating the sanctity of the modernist gallery and divisions between artistic mediums.[1] Her trompe-l'oeil style realistically imagines the impact of natural and man-made disasters on treasured cultural object as a way of considering the darker side of American society and the damages wrought through its history.[2] In producing these works, Hagerty uses fire, water, guns, and a variety of natural forces, like earthquakes and woodpeckers, to distress her carefully constructed fictitious objects.[2]