The Process of Letting Go

Fredericton Artist Dana O’Regan Plans Unique Parting of Work

Understanding the artistic process is a difficult undertaking. It’s something that is unique to everyone – how we envision, how we create and how we’re inspired. Sometimes the greatest motivation can come from letting go of our surroundings and all that make us comfortable. That’s part of the idea behind Fredericton artist Dana O’Regan’s upcoming studio event, Inventory and Release: The Process of Letting Go.

“Letting go is hard for everyone I think,” said O’Regan. “We feel comfortable with what is familiar to us whether it’s good or bad. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what changes you need to make in your life, but I believe that we all know deep down whether something in our life helps us to grow or whether it’s holding us back.”

On Friday December 5^th, O’Regan will begin letting go of several unique, painted abstract figurines, created through his recent development process which involves a unique layering of various canvases and palettes with mixed colour and substance.

“As an artist, I rely heavily on working in a process, which basically means that I make all my choices from the doing of something,” he said. “My intuition and emotional responses to what is happening in my life motivates and influences my process. So in a way, I’m creating physical journals of my life from paint.

“Over the past year, I have accumulated a lot of painted material that reflect the way I approach my craft,” said O’Regan. “They served me well, but I want to move on from this point and continue in another direction. So instead of throwing them away, I have decided to turn this mess into miniature figurines that I see as kernel events of what my painting technique and process has been over the last two years.”

But instead of welcoming visitors into his studio to “have at ‘er”, O’Regan has chosen to make the event a unique art experience. Beginning at noon on Friday, he will dangle a string will bells from his third floor studio space at 384 Queen Street. Interested parties can simply ring the bell and a one-of-a-kind (and completely free) piece of art will be lowered down. It couldn’t be easier, and in some ways, it couldn’t be healthier either.

“Letting go is a crucial step to moving forward and growing,” said O’Regan. “A lot of artists deal with this on one level or another. They can get used to doing something that starts off as something exciting, until it becomes easy. In my case, I have become too used to my studio space, so I’m trying to deal with it by taking my artistic practice out of this space and facing all the challenges that entails.”