Red Men

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on March 26, 2012 at 10:17pm

Hello Rhea,

 

Thank you for responding and telling me about your creative process and inspiration. I absolutely can see the reference to 'Red Men' now in the context you intended. But I like the initial ambiguity of the work too. While the specific subject matter may not be obvious at first viewing, the tension between the human figures and architecture (civilization) in the landscape creates a mood of uncertainty.  I find there are images that I keep coming back to, as they hold my interest.

I just had a conversation with a friend this evening about the nature of exhibition as essential dialogue.  For many artists, the work isn’t complete until it’s shared. 

 

Kristen

Comment by Rhea O'Neill on March 26, 2012 at 3:52pm

  Hello Kristen,

Thank you for your review on my painting. It means a lot to me to get feedback as I have recently moved to Santa Cruz CA and am sorely lacking in discussion about my work. I am glad that you were able to pick up on the disconcerting mood of my work. One of my main concerns is to make sure that my landscapes do not fall into the romantic category as this is the very concept that my paintings aims to critique. My landscapes are designed to be artificial and I freely mix different elements of seasons and plant matter that you would never see together in an actual environment. I hope to create the Utopian concept of an idealized nature that we hold in our dreams and stories (and in some cases are actually trying to create in the real world!) that has gone sickeningly wrong. The very creation and existence of such places can only be achieved through the segregation and domination of not only fellow men but everything alive. This Red Peoples series was inspired by a recent news story about the last few remaining uncontacted peoples in South America. The Helicopter images of Red men and blue women firing arrows at the passing aircraft hold such a fascination to me.These people seem pristine in an overtly romanticized way.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7426794.stm

At the same time I am intensely interested the application and method of painting. This often shows itself in the abstract areas of my canvas'. I like to approach my compositions like an interwoven pattern. Many people have commented that my work is often akin to printed fabric and textiles. As you have noticed, I tend not to conform to conventional picture making rules and will build up an area until the pattern and colour combination feels right to me.

Its always hard to put into words the things you contemplate when creating a work and I often feel I do an injustice with my text but I hope what I have said is a little enlightening about why I am creating these paintings

Thank you again.

Comment by Resident Curator on March 24, 2012 at 7:48pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

These pieces have a strange but appealing crystalline abstraction.  The landscape is faceted in a manner that breaks down the traditional figure-ground relationship, and yet I can strain to make out natural forms such as trees encroaching on man-made structures.  Red Men is disarming in that I come across a vignette of figures seemingly hidden below the active pattern of silhouetted trees.  The overall value pattern is such that it doesn’t support a local color palette.  Instead, gleaming pinks and violets bisect icy blues slivers of light and later pools of reflective coolness.  The pools at the bottom further defy atmospheric perspective, as they appear to rise up against the staccatoed pattern of weighed down (snow covered?) pines.  A disturbing beauty is present. This work’s companion piece, Red Children, offers a similar dissonance between the space of human/man/architecture versus idealized nature.  But I’m not completely persuaded the natural world is actually romanticized here- there could be an alternate mood suggested, for the saturated smooth blues could actually denote artifice.  These works are quite provocative taken in their totality.  Conflicting ideas are presented in a fragmented vertical orientation that is anything but tranquil and comforting.