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Visual Girl Journal

Disturb the Universe

    Do I dare? I’ve been blogging since March of 2014 and I’d be lying to you if I told you it was always easy. There are weeks, like this one, where I have NO IDEA what I’m going to say. So, I poured through my folder on ideas and scrounge through… Read More »Disturb the Universe

    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