Katrina O’Brien’s striking works of ink, acrylic and graphite sway between painting and drawing, and she sees her artwork as a kind of dance, and a way of delving into her own and others’ inner psyche. Each has a very specific story attached to it.

Katrina tells the story of this work:

They sat above the earth, amongst the firmament – a star cluster for a pillow. They swam in a black hole – dipped their feet into the seductive, swirling darkness. Everything was as it should be in the heavens. A flock of birds caught sight of them and began to dance. The dance turned into a swarm, and the swarm turned into a dream. The dream spoke to the stars, and all the stars began to fall.

The man dived into the black hole, never to be seen again.

The woman, now standing alone on the earth, looked up. The stars rushed to the ground around her. She was compelled to stay, perhaps too afraid to move…or perhaps it felt too exhilarating to leave. Eventually, the woman turned into a wave and evaporated back into the heavens.

There, the woman waited for a new songbird to sing to her – one not compelled to jump in black holes.