Brian O'Neill

(Born 1969)

Queen Anne's March, 2

Oil on masonite

10 x 8 inches

Signed

PROVENANCE

NOTES

What makes a man? What makes a woman? How has society through the ages defined these roles? The obvious answers come quickly, however, as a gay man and artist who grew up in the shadow of NYC on Long Island and ‘came out’ well before the Will & Grace years, I have personally experienced what men are expected to be when I knew it wasn’t so black and white. Men are not always beer swilling, hammer swinging, axe wielding hunter gathers, nor do they need to be. Furthermore, the ideals and expectations placed upon women as symbols of beauty, pure virgins, delicate and helpless without a strong man to show them the way is a societal construct that is outdated, unrealistic and simply wrong.

I saw the theme of Sexes as an opportunity to explore and express that strong and soft, masculine and feminine exist in both men and women. The most evolved men I know can feel a feeling shed a tear and nourish a child. The powerful women I am honored to call friends and relatives claim their space; ask for what they want and deserve without guilt or hesitation, nor do they shrink in the shadow of a man.

My two paintings illustrate all of these qualities by depicting the same woman in the same beautiful field. In one she is soft, quiet, pensive and seemingly submissive given her posture, color of clothing and body language. The second clearly shows that she is not that simple and refuses to be defined by what you need her to be in order to feel safe and comfortable. She rises, wears bold colors, marches on and does not apologize for what she needs. The ‘she’ can easily be the ‘he’ and we all make choices through color, body language to project strong, demure, bold or passive depending on our life experiences and goals as we become who we truly are and deny what others need or require us to be so that we can stand in our own personal truth.

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BIOGRAPHY - Brian O'Neill (Born 1969)

$Brian O\'Neill$

Brian O’Neill’s work has been showcased in galleries across The U.S, Canada, Japan and England. O’Neill is a graduate of The Ani Art Academy apprenticeship program where he studied under the guidance of acclaimed realism painter Anthony Waichulis. Brian has also found success in both realism and abstract painting with his dynamic and expressive Organic Abstraction work that connects the living subject matter of his still life and figurative paintings and expresses them is a bold and innovative manner.

Brian is a sought-after instructor and teaches workshops and classes in his Rochester, NY studio in both representational and abstract work. His work has been included in three museum shows in the past four years with a Jurors Choice Award at the prestigious Naples Museum of Art for the Blossom 2: Art of Flowers Premier Exhibition, inclusion in the two year traveling museum exhibition of Blossom, The American Still Life exhibition at the Shreveport Museum of Art and most recently, The 74th Annual Regional Exhibition at The Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY.

O’Neill has garnered numerous international awards and feature articles in many of today’s top art publications such as, The Artist’s Magazine “An Artist’s Life” Sept. 2014, The Pastel Journal Magazine, Top 100 Competition 2nd Place Still Life/Floral and was featured in the magazines coverage of the competition with a full page article and image of the winning painting (April 2011 issue), O’Neill also received an Honorable Mention in the same competition, Artists Magazine Annual Art Competition Honorable Mention, The ARC Art Renewal Center’s Annual Salon Competition, The Artists Magazine On-Line All Media Competition Honorable Mention and a Finalist Award in The Art Kudos International Competition.

“My responsibility as an artist is one that asks me to create not because I want to but because I have to, I am driven to make work that is at the highest level possible and depict beauty as I feel it to be and describe that in a language that can be read by all people who view my work even if we have never met in person” –Brian O’Neill