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'Recent Paintings' breaks boundaries of average format

In her "Recent Paintings," Lynn O'Brien transforms the mundane objects of everyday living into animated metaphorical objects which are personified in a dream-like series.

A background of abstract geometric shapes interrupt common space and become a surreal stage setting for scissors, mannequins, toys and eggs.

"I use objects as symbols," O'Brien said. "I started the series with the eggs and then I started looking for objects that would be innocent in their normal context. I started to rearrange the eggs with other objects, out of context, and put them together in a way that people haven't seen."

The bright colors combined with peculiar and unpredictable arrangement of objects make the works appear both humorous and serious.

"There are a lot of little details that appear innocent but then become more threatening," O'Brien said. "In 'Inferno' I was thinking about hell, so I used the red, but the scissors are children's scissors and that could be disturbing."

"Most of my metaphors are toys which I think make the work more approachable and not so threatening right off the bat. But usually there is something serious behind them," she said. "If I bring up issues such as life, death and time, it makes it more gentle and easier to swallow."

O'Brien's work deals with the paradoxes between bondage and safety, and freedom and danger. Throughout the series, similar objects begin to take on different personalities.

"In some cases the string is the thread of death and then other times a protective material," she said.

Many of the works have clock-like numbers to suggest time. The works' collage text is often unreadable but suggestive of a voice and life behind the paintings.

"I don't always intend for the words to be read, that's not the point to me," O'Brien said. "I'm really into texture and for me the words become another texture."

All of the exhibited works break from the boundaries of a typical square or rectangular canvass format which O'Brien said was a way to present new challenges to herself.

"When I first started the series they were squares but then I started combining shapes," O'Brien said. "Sometimes the shape relates to the theme or what I'm thinking about. The house shaped ones suggest family to me."

O'Brien says she is more interested in developing a relationship and conversation with her viewers in which she is not dominating the interpretation of her work.

"I'm really more interested in how other people interpret my work," she said. "I would like to leave the interpretation open to the viewer. I'm not offering the whole story - just a glimpse - and from there, the audience fills in the rest of the story.

"Some people find them disturbing," O'Brien said. "It depends upon their own backgrounds. I'm just putting them out there."

The paintings are on display at the Rotunda Gallery, third floor Student Union, through Apr. 20.