Monday, November 11, 1996
ART:
Unique approach to painting results in visual ‘songs’ on display
at FIGBy Aliza Batzri
Daily Bruin Contributor
Can a painting sing? Artist Jeffrey O’Connell believes it can.
His latest works, on exhibition at the First Independent Gallery
(FIG) in Santa Monica through Nov. 23, project musical impressions
almost as profound as listening to a classical symphony.
"I like to think of these paintings as an homage to music,"
O’Connell explains. Similar to a composer, O’Connell arranges each
painting so that each piece within it is individual, yet appears in
perfect harmony with the work as a whole.
His current works are almost exclusively abstract and bright to
the point of neon. This is a break with his previous style, which
was heavily characterized by figurative symbolism and somber color.
O’Connell attributes this shift to finally achieving a sense of
inner peace and happiness.
"I now have created a great life. I have my wife, a house and my
art," he observed. Having overcome personal and familial demons, he
has completely thrown himself into creating art that is light and
fun.
The paintings themselves are bright and, in design, very
reminiscent of some of Wassily Kandinsky’s works.
"I consider Kandinsky to be somewhat of a colleague of mine,"
O’Connell says. However, unlike Kandinsky’s works, O’Connell’s
paintings have one central characteristic in common  all make
copious use of fields of either vertical or horizontal lines. These
lines are an integral part of the system O’Connell uses in creating
his paintings.
This systematic approach to painting has served O’Connell well
by providing a set procedure that allows him to stay focused, yet
also be flexible enough to experiment.
He begins each painting with an artistic free-for-all, creating
any image or shape that strikes his fancy in a totally subconscious
way. Once he feels there is enough raw art to work with, he drags a
putty knife through the wet paint creating the trademark stripes.
This process obliterates any designs or latent images and
neutralizes them. It is from here that the possibilities for each
painting emerges.
To O’Connell every painting is unique, and each presents new
challenges and ideas. "It is sort of like a game, kind of like
playing cards. When I’m painting I’m really just playing a complex
game of solitaire," he explains.
Each new aspect O’Connell adds to the painting affects all
following items. In this way an orchestration of color emerges,
with O’Connell carefully directing each element within the piece.
It is in this phase that he feels his process is most similar to
that of a composer.
Knowledge of the fundamentals of music may account for the
rhythmic influences in O’Connell’s art. Each painting is a
different song  some dark and brooding, others light and
airy. He attributes this to his childhood, in which music was an
integral part. These paintings were specifically influenced by
Jazz, Classical, and Baroque chamber music.
"The paintings try to reach a point where there is blissful
harmonious perfection," O’Connell says. Due to his technique, the
paintings always consist of several layers of paint. The many
layers and parts of each work seem to exist together naturally. It
is in an effort to reach this point that O’Connell often spends
months on each painting.
He likens each layer of paint to a stratum of his consciousness.
Each level is indicative of his mood at that moment in creation.
O’Connell is not even sure that some of the paintings on display
are done.
"There was, for instance, one painting that I had thought I was
going to put in the show, but in the end I couldn’t. I discovered,
when I went to take it off the rack in storage, that I needed to do
a lot of work to it. I had put it away over two years ago and
thought it was finished. I realized it wasn’t balanced correctly,
so I went back to work, and so far I’ve already repainted 30
percent of it," he says.
In creating his versions of perfection, O’Connell seems to have
drawn extensively from the human body. Included within several of
his works are items that can only be described as cellular. They
conjure up images of biology and free-floating amoebas. O’Connell
says that any similarity was unintentional and purely subconscious.
Yet upon leaving, it is this aspect of the paintings that stays
with you. One painting in particular appears as one would imagine
the inside of a womb.
The pieces currently on exhibit at FIG are visual "songs." In
much the same way that music is therapeutic, O’Connell’s art has a
soothing air to it. These paintings are also about fun. "I want you
to enjoy yourself, and walk out with a sense of being enriched.
This experience should hopefully be similar to the feeling you have
after you’ve come out of a concert with music still ringing in your
ears," O’Connell concluded.
ART: "Jeffrey O’Connell: Paintings 1992-1996" at FIG through
Nov. 23. Gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6
p.m. FIG is located at 2022 A Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90404. For
more info, call (310) 829- 0345.
First Independent Gallery
"Blue-Play/Black Bars" by Jeffrey O’Connell, on display at the
First Independent Gallery in Santa Monica.