Rachael O'Shaughnessy


A decade ago, after having a near death experience, and some major life shifts, I witnessed a profound, ineffable sunrise, which altered the path of my work, and my life. Forever changed, I have been witnessing each consecutive sunrise since, (365 days a year for 10 years).
In witness to thousands of rises, each different, the shifting sunlight,atmosphere,and waters have given rise to paintings from memory of this sunlight ritual. I merge paint, presence, and purpose,as I gather my bodies of work from within what I witness.
A painting or drawing can be as nuanced as the experience of memory. Cognition becomes interspersed with emotion in this melding, which is held in layers of pigment and gesture over time. I photograph each sunrise as a journal, but, for me, photos and words never reach the profundity of feeling that the process of painting can gather.
Rather than working from photos, I paint directly from the memory of being fully present out there at every sunrise: a tiny vessel in the vastness. Emotion intermingles with brushstroke until the echo of nature remains on my canvas. Eluding the literal,I render nature as felt, walked through, breathed in, and condensed.