Meet 2023 Artist in Residence Kathy OConner

Kathy OConner, 2023 Artist in Residence

From Kathy:

Starting with traditional life drawing training at the American Academy of Art,in Chicago, I developed my passion for creating expressive works. The Academy promoted a very disciplined art practice deferring to great masters like Nicolai Fechin, John Singer Sargent, and Mary Cassat. This gave me a strong basis for my art in drawing, composition and color theory. However, there wasn’t much tolerance (at that time) for expressionist and abstract work. For me, that came much later. In school, I met my husband, artist Kang Cho and we moved to Colorado. Like many women, I allowed my art to take a back seat to raising and supporting my family. Later, once my daughter was in college, I explored intuitive art with Aviva Gold in Painting from the Source workshops. I found a new way of expressing myself through intuitive art. This was an exciting merging of representational and abstract concepts.

From this work I developed my own workshop for children and adults, Paint Like Crazy. These expressionist art sessions allowed participants to paint from their own feelings and subconscious associations. A marvelous stress reliever without the pressure of creating something “good.” The Lakewood Cultural Center in Colorado hosted my workshops for a year as part of its curriculum. Depending on what else was going on in my life, I’ve painted, explored different media, took workshops, and had a few shows, commissions, teaching and mural work.

In December, 2021, I had the very clear realization that it was now or never to become the artist I was always meant to be. Now I have returned to my passion for expressive art using acrylic and mixed media with a focus on expressing emotions. My life experience gives me a wealth of inspiration to express the emotions of living a full life. Love and loss, grief, anxiety and joy—-for myself and others. This is my mission now: to capture those emotions which cannot be defined by representational art. Music is a well-established memory trigger. Nothing defines us like the music of our youth. A study published by Music & Science discovered that music that was in the charts during one’s adolescence was not only rated as more familiar, but was also associated with more autobiographical memories. Often songs will inspire my work, which you may recognize in the titles of my work. Other times, I will complete a painting and I’m surprised it represents the emotion of an “oldie but goodie” and the memories it triggers. This is the basis of my Music as Muse exhibitions. Creators should not be dismissed because we are older in age. Priorities shift as life unfolds and this gives us a wealth of subject matter that perhaps, now is the best time to express it through art. The launch of my full-time artistic career is very exciting. I couldn’t be more thrilled and honored to be a part of an established, forward-thinking group like 40West Arts as their 2023 Artist in Residence.