Botanical Fanatical

Imagine how the Viburnum, Rosemary and Lilacs smell. The spring rush is early this year, and I wanted to share the inspiration that surrounds me. This awesome miracle of continual bloom is the reason I always include botanicals in my artwork. I strive to create my life as an art form, integrating all my activities with art. I tend gardens of vegetables, but  flowers  truly feed my soul.

always remebering Dad on his birthday-deathday February 4

Dad, you would have loved Cai.  Just today when he was on his back and he brought out his great big Corgi smile while we scratched his belly, noticing his  dense warm fur collar that is known as the fairy saddle, and feeling my smile come up we realized that when he runs off and won’t come back that the fairies have frisked him away.

2.2.2012 Arts Day This Thursday

O'Brien, 9 bird eggs, 30x30", mm collage

February 2 is Arts Day in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Below is a link to the full days’ schedule and 2 of the events that as 

an Al Smith Fellowship recipient I invite you to attend .

Arts Day Calendar of Events February 2, 2012

2:30  - 3:30 p.m.

Guided tour of the Kentucky Visions at the Capitol exhibit. To participate in this free tour, please meet Kentucky Arts Council staff member Kate Sprengnether on the second floor near the main elevators. My piece, 9 bird eggs, is in this show. Capitol Annex, 700 Capitol Avenue 5:00  - 7:00 p.m. Kentucky Arts Council Arts Day reception for arts groups, artists, those interested in the arts and legislators Special guests: Governor’s Awards in the Arts recipients (2011), Kentucky Poet Laureate Maureen Morehead and 2011 Al Smith Fellowship recipients Berry Hill Mansion, 700 Louisville Road, Frankfort http://artscouncil.ky.gov/KentuckyArt/ArtsDay2012_Schedule.htm

3 shapes, signs of the universe

©O'Brien, Book of Light, page 162, 12x16", mm collage

For several years I have been fascinated by the 3 basic shapes. This quote thrills me: "The Japanese interpret these three primordial and abstract signs as the graphic and spatial metaphor of the three elements: earth, fire, water. Earth fits into the square, fire burns in a triangle and water tends to roundness." form Traces of the Brush by Louise Boudonnat and Harumi Kushizaki

what do you see?

©O'Brien, Eagle Feather, 12x19", oil

Talking to a dear Colorado friend  today put a smile on my face when she told me I was currently doing "dimensional art". It made me so happy that it shows in the work on my website, that someone gets it, and further, comments about it because they feel uplifted by it. She was comparing it to an oil painting she bought 20 years ago. One reason she liked it then was that was the view she had driving towards Boulder to work from the plains. She told me she always asks people when they look at this, "what do you see". And she waits for them to see the various objects and animals pictured who are a part of that land. I love this painting and tried to buy it back from her, when I realized I would not be painting like that anymore. I have let my artist self change.

What do you see?

Al Smith Fellowship

©O'Brien, I'll Miss You, Little Wren, 20x16", mm collage

Thanks to my little House Wren who inspired me to create this collaged drawing, which was one of the 10 artworks that won for me the Fellowship. I acknowledge and thank the Kentucky Arts Council for their support of the arts and artists and gladly add the credit they request of us:

In recognition of artistic excellence, Kathleen O’Brien is the recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship Award from the Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, which is supported by state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

going forth

I was going to correct the misspelling in the last post to say "fourth try", but I decided I like the meaning of going forth. one thing that is liberating is to create something just for myself and want to share them here, as I do not put these on my website.

©O'Brien, big cloud, silver lining, 30x22", mm collage

I used some of my Victorian stickers to represent my kids. I never use magazine pictures in my collages, so this was a fun indulgence for me. That's the good red road leading west where they live. I journaled around and around the edges creating a frame.

©O'Brien, wedding garden, 30x22, mm collage

 I created this one to celebrate my daughter and son in law's wedding under the rainbows and stars where they had their first kiss.