Exploring Black & White State of Mind
This Brooklyn based artist uses color only sometimes, explores the rainbows in-depth, and makes good use of any medium that helps him achieve the kind of visual sounds he is striving for.
This Brooklyn based artist uses color only sometimes, explores the rainbows in-depth, and makes good use of any medium that helps him achieve the kind of visual sounds he is striving for.
INTERVIEW WITH VERNON O'MEALLY by Aura Copeland
Artist VERNON O’MEALLY in his Brooklyn studio
LES COULEURS: You knew you wanted to be an artist at a very young age and you both followed different paths (formal art education versus your creative path). What advice would you give to our very young Les Couleurs arts students?
VERNON O’MEALLY: I always knew I was going to be an artist, the only thing was how to make it happen. I chose graphic design to get myself to NYC as a way to be creative and subsidized my art career until I made work without graphic design. When I first arrived I had freelance clients sleeping on the trains and working nonsense. I chose to pursue my dreams by any means possible. So, my advice is there is no perfect path, just find yours and pursue your dream no matter what. As my good friend JR says: Focus on your Focus!
LC: Your art is contemporary in appeal but you are always striving for museum-quality - or for a very immersive audience experience augmented with technology. Tell us about your technique and the artists that inspired you.
VO: Electric paint,- you run your fingers along with sound to conduct your music, Augmented Really, Music Composition that goes along with each piece, we experiment with whatever fits the show and the idea for that particular concept. My technique is simply using whatever medium it takes to create visual sound, eye music. Some of my biggest art influences are my good friends and fellow artists; Malik Roberts, Corey Wash, Melvin 'Grave' Guzman, Zeehan Wazed. We work with one another, talk shit, drink, party, and work out solutions together. We are a new creative collective and we're making moves right now. In abstract expressionism Mark Bradford and Jack Pollock tops!
LC: Your artwork always surprises. We are very curious - what are you working on now?
VO: Right now I'm working on commissions (murals or painting on canvas), rainbow still lives. Each room is based on the color of the rainbow, and each features a rainbow component. Right now I have 5 completed (RED,- with a rainbow vase, ORANGE,- a cake with rainbow icing and layers, YELLOW,- rainbow sculpture, GREEN,- rainbow bedazzled Juul, and BLUE,- a rainbow porcelain unicorn statue). Next is my Rainbow in the Dark, an abstract expressionist series amidst my art residency in Leipzig, Germany, based on my favorite Psychedelic, jazz, improv band DEEP PURPLE.
VERNON O'MEALLY
Halfway Down the Stairs Theres a Stair Where I Sit, 2018
Acrylic, charcoal, spray paint, and tempera on raw canvas
72 × 192 in
182.9 × 487.7 cm
VERNON O'MEALLY
From the artist’s archives
VERNON O'MEALLY
House of the Rising Sun, 2018
Acrylic, charcoal, spray paint, and tempera on raw canvas
36 × 36 in
91.4 × 91.4 cm
VERNON O'MEALLY
I See Everything With New Beams, 2018
Acrylic, charcoal, spray paint, and tempera on raw canvas
48 × 48 in
121.9 × 121.9 cm
VERNON O'MEALLY
Her Rattling Cough Never Shuts Off, 2018
Acrylic, charcoal, and spray paint on raw canvas
36 × 60 in
91.4 × 152.4 cm