Cynthia O’Brien’s series My Brain will be on display at Glebe event. Courtesy of Cynthia O’BrienA Centretown artist whose creations are known internationally will be displaying and selling some of her works at an upcoming local exhibition of ceramic art.
At her home-based art studio in Centretown, Cynthia O’Brien talked about the inspiration behind a series of sculptures that has been displayed at a renowned ceramics museum in Taiwan. It all began with her thinking about the brain — in particular how the subconscious works.
The series, titled My Brain, is a conglomerate of shapes painted in chocolate brown varnish, the elements winding and twisting together like the cortex of a brain.
O’Brien will be showcasing select pieces of My Brain at 260 Fingers, an annual Ottawa showing of work by 26 well-known ceramic artists from Ontario and Quebec. It runs from Nov. 11-13 at the Glebe Community Centre.
My Brain’s sculpted angles, both sharp and smooth, throw shadows on to the floor beneath it, and the light that plays across their surfaces produces a reflective sheen. One of the sculptures has an opening people can look in to, but in that dark space there’s nothing — it’s empty, and void of light.
“That makes me think even more about the fact that they are these beautiful vessels or sculptural elements but essentially they’re empty on the inside,” she said. “There’s absolutely nothing in there and either you can see into it or you can’t.”
O’Brien said the series was modeled on the intricate folded features of the brain. On a deeper level, she said the sculptures were representative of her job, teaching art to Second World War veterans with dementia at the Creative Arts Services at the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre.
260 Fingers, named for the 26 artists who compete in it annually, is held to draw attention to sculpture in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.
This year, the exhibition will feature works from Raymond Warren, Marianne Chenard, and Teresa Wingar.
“The people in it do very original work and there’s a real range of things. There’s functional work, there’s sculptural, there’s wood fired ceramics, there’s just such a depth that’s there, so it’s a very important show I think,” said Maureen Marcotte, a sculptor from Wakefield who is participating in 260 Fingers.
O’Brien said she is deeply inspired by nature and likes to think of all her sculptures as flowers — the beautiful flowering bud that comes out of a boring stalk, much like an amazing sculpture emerges from a slab of clay.
“You actually hold the piece and you actually feel it and move with it and you find that tiny little ‘ooo’ — and that ‘ooo’ is the flower and the rest of it is kind of like the strength in the stalk or the root structure,” O’Brien said.
My Brain was chosen by a panel of judges to be a part of the 2016 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, a competition run every four years by the New Taipei City Government to explore different aspects and possibilities of sculpture.
O’Brien said she sent her series to Taiwan and later travelled there herself for the biennale to see the jury award prizes to the winners.
The biennale featured the work of over 100 international sculptors.
Residents of Taipei, including the mayor, Ko Wen-Ji came for the grand opening.
“They made a very big deal out of us which was very nice,” said O’Brien.
O’Brien did not win a prize, but she was honoured to have been chosen to be a part of such a time-honoured competition.
“For Taiwan, an Asian country, to actually accept that and say well done and to invite me to something like that is a very high honour because Asia is the centre of all clay,” she explained.
It took O’Brien about one month to finish My Brain using a black-bodied clay. The artist said that of all the types of clay she has worked with so far, this one was her favourite because the dark colour allowed viewers to focus on more technical aspects of the sculpture rather than the hue.
“For me, it’s all about the shape, the line and maybe the texture versus colour, so I try to bring it down to the basics so that the viewer can actually see how a line fits into another line, how a shadow works with light, but also how the light reflects off of wet and dry,” she said.
O’Brien said when people view her art, she likes when people not only take in the meaning of it, but also touch it.
“They caress the piece, they find little places where their fingers can go. To me, that’s really important, especially in this age of the computer and flat screens and everything, that you actually hold the piece and you actually feel it and move with it,” she said.
A Centretown artist whose creations are known internationally will be displaying and selling some of her works at an upcoming local exhibition of ceramic art.
At her home-based art studio in Centretown, Cynthia O’Brien talked about the inspiration behind a series of sculptures that has been displayed at a renowned ceramics museum in Taiwan. It all began with her thinking about the brain — in particular how the subconscious works.
The series, titled My Brain, is a conglomerate of shapes painted in chocolate brown varnish, the elements winding and twisting together like the cortex of a brain.
O’Brien will be showcasing select pieces of My Brain at 260 Fingers, an annual Ottawa showing of work by 26 well-known ceramic artists from Ontario and Quebec. It runs from Nov. 11-13 at the Glebe Community Centre.
My Brain’s sculpted angles, both sharp and smooth, throw shadows on to the floor beneath it, and the light that plays across their surfaces produces a reflective sheen. One of the sculptures has an opening people can look in to, but in that dark space there’s nothing — it’s empty, and void of light.