ASSORTED These are individual pieces that have been created off the cuff and do not yet fall into a typical series. Every painting from Steven Michael O’Connor has a reason for it’s creation or a message attached. This is a perfect place to witness the genesis of new compositions and observe how they mature into a series of their own. Steven Michael O’Connor has never made prints or reproductions of his paintings, ensuring that his clients are always receiving a one of a kind investment for their home or office. This inspires him to push the series further with every piece and to avoid a ‘factory’ approach to his artwork.

AUGMENTO The Augmento Series combines the importance of comic books as a form of entertainment with their relevance as high art. Steven Michael O’Connor takes the original concept of the comic and strips away the idealism behind the hero. In doing so, he paints a more realistic portrayal of what a hero living in a human world might act like. Such representations have produced images of Batman getting a DUI, Spiderman disappointing Mary Jane, Dr. Strange losing his temper or Superman overdosing.

BLEACH Bleach is an important series that deals with the bleaching of the world’s coral reefs. Coral reefs are the forests of the sea floor and are habitats for entire ecosystems. Unfortunately our coral reefs are becoming bleached by ocean warming which is a direct result of global warming. When the coral dies out from prolonged bleaching the marine animals that depend on the coral for life disappear. These paintings are an abstraction of different reefs in particular regions of the world’s oceans in hopes to shed light on the global warming. Its clear that man made global warming is having devastating effects on our world and hopefully these paintings highlight an area that we rarely get a chance to see.

DRIPTRONICS The Driptronics Series was inspired by Steven Michael O’Connor’s time spent living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 2004. The works reflect the atmosphere present on the streets and sidewalks of the city providing the viewer with an inventive stylization of an urban setting. Steven Michael O’Connor utilizes multi-layers of medium to create an architectural abstraction infused with the controlled drips of graffiti.

DRIZZLE This ‘controlled drip’ style that Steven Michael O’Connor has perfected originated with ‘color bars,’ which is a simple abstraction of early TVs color bars…a homage to the days when our TVs respectfully turned themselves off after a certain hour. The full drip style without the black bars was a result of a commission from a restaurant owner. The hybrids were inspired by the interpretation of a desert’s icing, delineating the similarities that cooking and painting share. Cooking is obviously temporary, but equally as important as the more permanent form of creating.

ELECTRONIC HEROIN Seemingly the most passionate of Steven Michael O’Connor’s works, the Electronic Heroin series addresses the negative aspects of the television industry. After working for several years as a producer, Steven Michael O’Connor became disaffected towards the artificial reality presented by the entertainment industry. The average American spends six hours a day consuming television–this excess is depicted in the painting. The Electronic Heroin series seamlessly incorporates direct text with symbols of television such remote controls, antennas, and static. Steven Michael O’Connor weaves messages into the paintings, effectively warning the viewers about the perils of excessive consumption. The Electronic Heroin series is quickly becoming Steven Michael O’Connor’s most well known body of work.

NEGATIVE The Negative Series does to compound sentences what the Vibration Series did for the singular word. The crisp pallet of these paintings helps create a visceral depiction of language in motion with the focus on the negative space in the piece…bringing the background to life.

PALM The Palm Series represents the irony that exists in Los Angeles life. The paintings reflect the juxtaposition of the beautiful people and places of Southern California, and the materialistic and fake means by which this status quo arose and is maintained. Steven Michael O’Connor uses mixed media such as a photograph of a palm tree transposed on a brightly colored background or sunrise scene.

PHOTOS SYNTHESIS This cutting-edge style created by Steven Michael O’Connor, documents his creative process by incorporating images of a painting’s creation directly onto the canvas before painting over the photos. This technique imparts the illusion that the piece creates itself. The ‘Synthesis’ style pushes the mixed media in a new direction by repurposing the documentation of the creative process and enabling the viewer to come along for the ride. This is the timeless chicken-or-egg construst applied to art. More a style than a series, each ‘Synthesis’ painting deals with a different theme; from a sincere look at war and destruction to satirical examination of a nation spending its way out of debt. The first piece created with this technique was ‘Wargasm…Supply and Demand’, a vivid 4ft x 8ft piece. Arguably the Pièce de résistance of Steven Michael O’Connor’s career to date, this mixed media painting deals with themes of creation and destruction, and includes nearly every supply imaginable while taking over a full year to create.

One Response to: The Series’

  1. Alison Cave says:

    Hi Steven
    hope yu are well we met you at a fair in Beverly `hills in `may and you gave us your card I like the negative series but the artowrk needs to be vertical with size 186 cm tall x 126 cm wide
    I would also need to change the colours to match the interiors etc
    How long will it take to complete and how much will it be for a work of this size
    kind regards Alison Cave

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