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Visual Girl Journal

The Story Behind the Image

    This is one of my all-time favorites. Sometimes I forget about images that I made awhile back. Majestic Rain is one of them. It’s one of my all-time favorites so it’s surprising that I would forget about it….but I did. Kim Pogue (at First Edition Prints) prints all my reproductions for… Read More »The Story Behind the Image

    Clare O'Neill Artwork

    The Story Behind the Image

      Sometimes I call this portfolio ‘my lovelies’. It’s a name that my friend Kat coined for them a long time ago. Áine is my favorite of the series. She is named for my mother – Áine being the Gaelic version of Ann. Actually the entire series is about my mother… Read More »The Story Behind the Image

      Clare O'Neill Trees

      The Story Behind the Image

        Time Slips Away – At its most sublime, art can transport us to a time, a place, a feeling, or a memory. It may be the entire image, or the smallest aspect of the image, but we are reminded of some profound connecting thread; it becomes a commentary on our… Read More »The Story Behind the Image

        Horses as Muse

        Horse as Muse

          Why photograph horses? I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently as it became incredibly obvious when spending a week at a dude ranch that I’m not a horsewoman. I didn’t grow up around horses. I didn’t obsess about them as a child. My only real experience with horses was… Read More »Horse as Muse

          Clare O'Neill Exploring the Edges

          Exploring the Edge

            I’ve never been one to live on the edge. But this week has been full of edges. I’m just back from an amazing ten days in Oregon (opening the 2016 National Photo Encaustic Exhibition and teaching two back-to-back workshops). Before I left I was fixated on the Oregon coast. Couldn’t… Read More »Exploring the Edge

            Finding Inspiration

              Where does inspiration come from? If that was an easy question none of us would struggle with inspiration from time to time.  I don’t think I’m alone when I get into a block and nothing seems to be coming my way. But then, out of blue, inspiration can hit. I… Read More »Finding Inspiration

              Clare O'Neill Artwork

              Taking Some of My Own Advice

                Recently I was re-reading the introduction that I wrote for Open to Interpretation: Water’s Edge and was struck by this paragraph. As artists we have a human impulse to create art, as well as the human need to define or make sense of the work created. Artistic expression has long been a… Read More »Taking Some of My Own Advice

                Clare O'Neill Artwork

                My Aha Moment

                  I first started exploring traditional alternative processes and tried a bunch of different techniques. I was in search of more depth than a printed image could provide. I wanted something that I didn’t have to put behind glass. Something more organic, something that I could touch, feel and smell. I… Read More »My Aha Moment

                  Going Large

                    This is why i make Large-scale art. The first time I painted on canvas I went large. Not nearly as large as the work I create now, but a lot larger than anyone else in the class. Without much thought I bought a 24×24 canvas.  My instructor was taken aback… Read More »Going Large

                    Save the Bees

                      Bee Inspired. A couple of months ago I was contacted by the MN Landscape Arboretum as they are opening a new center dedicated to bees and pollinators and would I like to be part of the opening exhibition. Absolutely, yes, of course. Since it’s the bee and pollinator center it… Read More »Save the Bees