Ann O'Neill

Fight. Flight. Freeze. Forgive. Forbear. Forward.
Painting
Artist Statement
At family gatherings, after dinner is for telling stories. My dad as a young doctor in Missouri treated the postman who fell inside an empty well. He built a stretcher at the bottom of the well and asked half the town to gently pull the postman to safety. My mom’s younger brother was married before her during the 1950’s in Fort Worth, Texas. She cried all the way to his wedding, wondering what the hell she was doing in college studying biology. I’m a psychotherapist maybe because I like hearing people’s stories. They are sad, inspiring, funny and mostly, hard. Others’ stories helped me create a central narrative in my art. The narrative carries their words and puts them into paint and canvas. I try to paint like good storytellers tell stories. The canvases are layered with light, dark, texture and color. The work contains devils, white pines, plugs, angels, dogs, pregnant women, children, fences, old men, TV’s, and EKG lines. The elements move towards a resolution, but the perspective challenges the viewer to, hopefully, return and to glean something new from the story. Ann O’Neill July 12, 2018