Nancy O’Hara

Artist Statement

My purpose in making art is to touch the ineffable, to go beyond words into the deep belly of creativity. It is to meet myself in the wellspring and have a conversation with the viewer, to communicate in a deep and intimate way at first sight, in an instant. I strive only to be in harmony with each line, each splash of color and splatter of ink as it strikes the painting surface, to reveal what is already there.

The experience of making marks gets truly exciting when I resist the impulse to name what I’m seeing take shape and open myself up to the possibility of not knowing, of just seeing and experiencing whatever is in front of me – what it is saying, what it is becoming. To let it do me rather than me do it.

I wish for anyone who stands or sits in front of a piece of art created in my studio this same experience. I don’t want viewers to know or feel what I feel. I want them to know and feel whatever they feel. That is for me the true nature of all art: beauty that is unrepeatable and unnamable.

[email protected]
nancyohara.com
@nancyoharaartist