Kent O'Connor
Region: Pacific Coast
I don’t know how I got here, wanting to be an artist. I remember
wanting to be an architect and then not wanting to be an architect.
I paint from observation, and like many artists, I meditate on time
and the quality of light, and like a demiurge I construct worlds
of misfit objects: a ball of tape from when I was a carpenter
building dildo displays for a sex toy convention; a plastic pot
with a warped rim; a counterfeit $10 bill, wrinkled and stained;
a block of marble; a canvas with an unfinished drawing; a rock
from the coast; a T-shirt faded and worn; a coconut from the side
of the road; a leather glove on a severed hand; a Nike shoe coated
in plaster; a lemon; a small watermelon; a fork from Chipotle.
They are not special but rather exactly what they are—objects
from life. When I paint, I sit with the objects and experience
without touching, feeling but not feeling. Feeling the inside of a
glove feeling.