The Vision

by Ciara Halligan

“The work that I create straddles the fence between the traditional, familiar and known, and the arcane, strange and uncomfortable. My paintings and drawings feature serene, quaint nature scenes as often as alarming visages and contorted bodies. Each side of this spectrum--deemed good or bad, beautiful or ugly--is as important as the other. Closing the perceived gap between perfection and ruin is where I focus most of my energy. In tandem with the content of my work, I use a variety of mediums needed to emphasize this dichotomy. Precise pen and ink, scrubby dull-colored acrylics, highly saturated oil paints. The inspiration is everything that grows and lives and dies. I see affluent neighborhoods butted up against blocks decaying with inattention. In all nature, death and disintegration of matter coexist with life and the regeneration of each new spring. My art is an addition to a tale as old as time.”