There Will Come a Time

An Exhibit by Michelle O’Patick-Ollis

August 16 — September 18, 2023
Exhibit Room and Hallway Gallery

OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, August 25 at 5:30 PM

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT

“There Will Come a Time” is a collection of portrait drawings depicting the changes and challenges that occur during the aging process.  Painting with different strengths of coffee, the artist blocks in large areas of her images first and then draws on top of the paintings with sepia toned pencils to create psychological portrait drawings that capture the inner state of mind of her subjects, those being her parents. 

The drawings tell stories of a mother with Parkinson’s disease and a quadriplegic father, enduring the winter of their lives.  Although the stories are personal in nature, they speak to a wide audience. 

Anyone who has watched a family member grow old, and become imprisoned within their withering bodies, will have an understanding of and emotional connection to the work. “As I watched my parents decline, I desperately wanted to help them.  I wanted to make them happy again.  Although I couldn’t do that in reality, I can do that in my artwork.” 

“Mom Has Parkinson’s” is a drawing where the artist depicted her mother smiling and dancing.  Six arms wave back and forth and the body appears to be swaying from side to side.  “In truth, it is a depiction of how my mother’s body would move as she spoke. The more she concentrated on what she was trying to say, the more her body jerked back and forth”. 

The artist is able to depict her parents in a way where they seem to be at peace or joyful, yet upon closer inspection, the viewer is able to see a visual hint to the truth of the situation.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Michelle O’Patick-Ollis is a multi-passionate artist who enjoys creating mixed media coffee paintings, charcoal portraits, mixed media sculptures, and murals.  She has a BFA from East Tennessee State University (1995) and MFA from Arizona State University (1999) both with concentrations in printmaking.  She went on to earn her MAT in 2005 and taught Visual Arts at the intermediate/middle school level for 17 years.  She now enjoys having time to create art full time.