My Lost Summer Bird

Second Place for Fine Art
See Bart O’Reilly’s work in the 2017 Special Winners Edition

acrylic on raw canvas
24″ x 24″

My work is concerned with light, shadow, color, material, and perception. Using drawing, painting, video, poetry, and installation I ask questions like what do we see when we pay attention? And how can color, light, and shadow affect our perception of form, space, and material? I explore color as a subject in itself. There is also an interest in the associations that can arise from the application of sparse and reductive painterly techniques.

Some work begins in childhood memories. Paintings and poems rooted in emotions, people, and places as they meander around present world events and life in twenty-first-century America. They consider territory, ownership, politics, and landscape. My dear friend and mentor Renee Van der Stelt has pointed out that they are whatever arises on a given day. The present evokes the past. A rainy afternoon, a vivid dream, or a chance encounter with a total stranger, suggest new ways to describe the experiences that shape me.” —Bart O’Reilly