Rhea O’Neill
A large part of my painting practice is informed by the beauty of my surroundings in Northern California. Vivid panoramas and soft light create an idyllic landscape from which to pluck colors and forms. My work embodies a personal, life-long fascination with an imagined animal existence. The creatures I depict are alive with their own agency, co-existing in a world altered by humanity. Within my work, nature becomes a wild and slightly unknowable force that humanity constantly tries to control and bend to its desires. The animals are often imprisoned by the roles mankind would like them to inhabit, rather than their natural, wild motivations. Of course, this creates rather a contradiction, as I am also using these depictions to express my personal view. You will find me touching on our degradation of the environment through exploitation and pollution and how this alters the natural world. This often reveals itself in discarded waste and how nature is forced to cohabitate with it.
