Shawn-Todd

About me:

Name: Shawn-Todd O'Malley Role: Artist Media: Painting Region: United States of America The Fusion of Arts: The idea to combine or fuse together different art styles is not a new or unique idea. As a matter of fact it is quite old. Since the beginning of time one artist has always been inspired by another and has sought to borrow or incorporate techniques from that other artist to better his/her own skill at their craft. This is easily evident with the Egyptians after their contact with Rome. During these two great empires long relationship Egyptian art and Roman art fused together, not as a whole but in bits and pieces. Each culture borrowed these bits and pieces to refresh or make new their own crafts. The Egyptians, of course, borrowed heavily from the Romans, especially techniques involved with sculpture. The Romans, on the other hand, borrowed sparingly from the Egyptians, merely being entertained by the Egyptians primitive and crude painting and sculptural styles. Besides the Romans had for centuries been involved in the plundering of the Greek artisans and their craft techniques. Modern and past Master Artisans have often followed this same path. Picasso was quite fond of this idea and was greatly inspired by African art as well as the traditional Roman/Greek influences. Cleverly, he found subtle ways to combine pieces of each nations culture into many of his own works. “Les Demoiselles d Avignon” is one of the most pronounced examples of Picasso’s application of this philosophy. This fusion or blending of art styles, techniques, and philosophies eventually led Picasso to the idea of Cubism. Picasso found what he was looking for…a unique and fresh style of art saturated with thousands of years of proven technique and skill. I have chosen also a similar path. I work to fuse together, not just ancient techniques and cultural art styles, but newer, more contemporary ideas to creating a painting or sculpture. Fusing together Expressionism with Impressionism, while applying philosophies of Cubism to a painting is a simple and brief example. To be more accurate I fuse together ethnic and cultural art styles and often combine common African, Egyptian, and/or other primitive painting/drawing techniques with more modern ideas, such as Dynamic Composition (Dynamic Composition is the idea of setting up the composition of a painting in an unreal distorted fashion so as create excessive drama or to intensify action. Hollywood and comic books love this idea and use it excessively.) or basic photography lighting principles (which were not well known in 300 BC) and even some 3-D computer modeling techniques are often taken advantage of as I create a painting. My colors are chosen from an expressionists approach to using color. My backgrounds are sometimes treated impressionistically and sometimes composed like a set for a school play. It is an easy task to bend and twist the anatomical parts of some primitive culture’s sculpture as you paint it on canvas. This often plays well into one of Cubist ideas of “seeing or viewing an object from all sides or directions at once”, the painted figure is grossly twisted in all directions, and though, you can not see all of his sides at one time, you can see many of his different sides at once. By working all of these elements together I am able to fuse together many different art techniques and styles, each being able to compliment the other and each able to keep the other modest. I remain loyal to the three general painting subjects…portraits, landscapes, and still life. I choose the theme or story of a painting from a traditional pool of themes (good vs. evil, love, motherhood, violence, sex, work, religion, etc.). I paint the emotional side of the subject, stripping away the detail to it’s basic nature, simplifying it, so we can feel it’s naked and vulnerable pain or happiness. Artist Fighting Irish Studios January 2010 – Present (2 years 2 months) Art Director Independent Professional Artist O'Malley Art 1998 – 2012 (14 years) I have worked in a variety of medium. Acrylic, oils, pastel, colored pencil, graphite, etc. I have engaged in many different types of media...photography, animation, traditional paintings, digital art, film, etc. I have also participated in numerous art shows, both with art galleries and independently. Asst. Animation Director (intern) Ravens Eye Productions October 1996 – December 1996 (3 months) Assisted the Animation Director in the direction of frames to be used for animation, dialogue, music, sound effects, etc. Art Institute of Seattle 1996-1998