As an abstract expressionist painter, I am influenced by the rich landscape of urban and rural Colorado and New Mexico.  I currently reside in Santa Fe, New Mexico and have a studio there. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, I have been at home in Colorado and New Mexico for over 30 years. My medium is acrylic and mixed media, often incorporating collage made from my own works on canvas and paper that are cut and integrated back into a painting on canvas. Texture and layering to a sculptural effect are prominent. The works are not carefully planned in advance. My pieces evolve from within during the process, creating a visual language open to each viewer’s interpretation and experience. Each stroke of paint has an energy connected to that idea.  

Critique by Cullen Siewert

Molly O’Brien’s abstract works of art continue to push the boundaries as to what a painting can be. After examining several of her works it became clear that her mastery and skills were completely focused around experimenting; which brings forth an element of informal quality to her work. Working with raw canvas would seem to be a step in the opposite direction of masterful qualities; however, a great deal of sophistication is understood and utilized in her preparation and approach. 

With most of the painting surface being raw canvas, O’Brien’s use of gesso in certain areas works well to create a contrast in both texture and saturation as she layers on more paint. In other experiments she has used different substances to achieve a stained effect on the raw canvas; for example, coffee was used on one of her previous works, which provided her with an earthly, and somewhat aged feel for the undertones of her painting. Once the canvas has been prepared to her liking, O’Brien then focuses her attention mainly upon the contrasts of temperature, saturation and texture.

Cool blues and greens fill up her backgrounds in a very loose and chaotic manner, balancing well with the warm, ordered, child-like forms that push to the surface of her paintings. The use of paint straight out of the tube provides O’Brien with hues at the peak of their saturation, which really sets the tone for her paintings. Contrast of texture can be found in everything but the paint itself. Outside sources of texture, or collage items, are common in her works; items such as waxed paper and glass shards are present in her works. O’Brien’s drive to experiment and invent is very evident in her uses of texture; by ripping through a canvas and placing collage elements behind it, she is attempting to push the space of the painting in a very literal way. In other works, she has experimented with covering over a very worn and wrinkled painted canvas with another canvas, allowing the older canvas to show through in parts, again pushing the space of the painting.

O’Brien’s works successfully challenge the viewer to find the order in their world of chaos; by working in a larger scale, her paintings successfully swallow the viewer and make them a part of the composition. Once inside, the viewer is able to relate to her idea of bringing order to chaos, allowing for a sense of joy to be felt and perceived. Her outside of the box way of thinking and experimenting reflect O’Brien’s drive to be an inventor and to always be creating something new. These traits can historically be traced to the time when surrealism and abstract expressionism were nearly merged.