Some of Lisa Marie O’Connell’s best pieces begin on coffee cups. When a scene inspires her, she documents her surroundings in any way she can, whether it be on a napkin or a scrap of paper.
One of O’Connell’s latest pieces is inspired by a cornfield she passed while driving through Holmdel. She was drawn to the yellow of the corn, the sunlight filtering through the leaves and a line of crows sitting throughout the field. She pulled over and began sketching the scene on an old paper cup in the front seat. For O’Connell, art is a constant process that occurs beyond the borders of a canvas or a studio.
“I paint out of necessity and it’s not out of necessity of paying my bills,” she says. “You need to breathe, you need to eat, and I need to paint.”
O’Connell is a visual artist living in Monmouth Beach. She uses oil paints and black ink to create paintings and hand drawn cards.
Growing up, O’Connell knew she had the mind of an artist. She observed things differently than others, focusing on the light and composition of her surroundings. She studied illustration and graphic design at the School of Visual Arts before working for a silkscreen company in New York.
Eventually, the corporation closed and O’Connell shifted her focus to free lancing and doing illustrations.
“I really just thought I would be a painter, I never really looked ahead,” she says. “I was always in the moment. It was just so romantic”
Now, she works for the Monmouth County Arts Council. She has recently started making personalized, hand drawn cards for weddings and special occasions, and she is working to grow the business.
In the mean time, O’Connell is focused on painting as much as she can. She tries to paint for at least a few minutes each day.
“I literally try to do it everyday even if it’s just five minutes because it’s healing,” she says. “No matter what mood I enter an art space in, I always leave feeling better”
She describes her art as painterly and layered. She works with different finishes to create paintings that are rich with stories and balanced in composition.
About six years ago, O’Connell became infatuated with crows. Crows embody flight and movement, and in times when O’Connell has felt smothered or stuck, crows have offered a release.
“Sometimes I feel like I can’t figure people out at all, but when I look at these birds, I see so much passion and interaction,” she says. “I think they are magnificent.”
Though crows are often evocative of darkness or despair, O’Connell positions them into her pieces with a sense of elegance and optimism; she captures the contradiction on a single canvas.
“I believe in people’s goodness and people’s light so I always try to bring some sort of positive aura,” she says. “There’s always an edge of hope, no matter how dark things may seem.”
Lisa Marie O’Connell can be contacted through email at lm@monmoutharts.org. She is also featured on the MCAC’s Artist Registry.
I just want to clear one thing up – although this blog is accurate, my car is not full of old coffee cups LOL I will draw on a cup that has coffee still in it because it is the only paper in my car or on a cup from that morning – which I remove from my car at the end of the day. I am not a pack rat LOL
i love the atmosphere that lisa marie creates in her crow paintings. they have such an other-worldly quality but also a playfulness that makes me linger, wondering what those crows might be communicating to one another….
Hooray, LM!! 8)
Congratulations on the Monmouth Museum Show and your wonderful art… birds, birds, birds they are fascinating.