Idealism and the picture plane & Other slices of Life

“Idealism and the picture plane’ is my struggle to say something new about the picture plane. They are a sequence whereby perspective and composition become more extreme, from simple idealism to almost surrealism. There was a visual aspect to this, firstly to see the optical effect of applying paint in a pointillist fashion and its dynamism with exaggerated perspective.

The series ‘Something to write home about’ is a painterly attempt at contemporary issues in art and the globalisation of the world around us. They were conceived to be both funny and serious, carefully painted in general, and an attempt at a universal message in a personal way. Nearly all the stamps were duly swapped for other symbols, which also underlined a post-modern nature. (The stamps were almost a fetish in nature but held implications, I wanted to rise above these issues visually but the stamp was abandoned after ‘discussions’ with tutors.)”

— Sean Anthony O’Connor