Maria O'Malley - February 1, 2007

Traditional art making techniques can, at times, place a stranglehold on the creative process. In O’Malley’s recent body of work, the artist transcends these boundaries freeing her to emote highly personal work expressing her ideas with a mannerist ethos.

Though her work remains grounded by her background as a highly skilled draftsman, these paintings are charged with a personal vocabulary that O’Malley derives from her personal journey that ebbs and flows between real and subconscious worlds.

The artist does not decode this world for the viewer, rather allows one to participate on a multitude of levels. Whether the expressiveness of marks or the symbolism of the iconic imagery, there is something here for casual and intellectual alike.

It is not O’Malley’s intent to over-describe these dreamscapes nor is it her job to explain her vocabulary, rather to allow the willing traveler to step inside these worlds and forge their own trails to the journeys end.


Jorg Dubin
Guest lecturer
Laguna College of Art and Design