Self-described as a philosopher, Heilmann creates paintings that are infused with content of the self, social, private, and public, as well as allusions to the domestic everyday. In the ‘70s, when Heilmann began painting, her audacious primary colors were unique and bold for the time. Heilmann’s paintings received criticism at a time when pure abstraction and Greenbergian formalism reigned, when art for art’s sake was the manifesto of the time.