Jennifer O'Connell

Artist Statement

Obscure, private visions that alienate the mind in daylight, keep a potent mooring within me. Inspired by what the mind conjures, perception is influenced by contemplation. Shadows, objects, and shapes are gateways to memories. Imaginings mingle with perceptions. In dreaming before rooms, I come in contact with transient psychological aspects. Literally and symbolically, the interior space is the self.

While nudging perception toward visual metaphor, I seek visual surprise. Visual and conceptual depth intersect through a back and forth process of direct observation and separation; reality is the support for suggestion. Under changing conditions, paintings are built up piece by piece, seeking compositional and conceptual resonance. Through an additive and subtractive visual search, variety in application and alternate descriptions are explored through the color medium. Objects are surpassed as symbols; fragments of the moments compressed into each painting emerge as temporal evidence and manifestations of human presences.

Biography

Jennifer O’Connell grew up in the Adirondack region of upstate New York. She earned an MFA degree in painting and drawing from the University of New Hampshire and a BFA from SUNY Plattsburgh. Additionally, she studied fine art at the University College Chester in England on a Giltz Family Travel Award. After receiving her MFA, she was invited to show in the Young Talent exhibition in Washington Depot, CT. Since then, she has been the recipient of numerous awards including an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Fellowship, a Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency Grant, and a Massachusetts State Cultural Council Grant. She has led public lectures and participated in panel discussions on the East Coast. Visiting Guest Artist Lectures include Barton College in NC and SUNY Plattsburgh in NY. Her exhibition record includes national and international shows at Fraser Gallery in Washington, DC and the Bowery Gallery in New York, NY. In 2008, she was selected by juror Cynthia Reeves for the New England New Talent Exhibition at the Fitchburg Art Museum in Fitchburg, MA. In 2011, she was invited to exhibit her work at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.

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