Katrina O’Brien’s, I Wrote You a Letter as I Drifted Down the River, is part of her solo exhibition, Dream Letter. 

Katrina says of this work: “This work is about a desire to return to more painterly forms, this work crossed over into both painting and drawing.

“During the course of making this body of work, I was reading a book about a nightingale. The book contained a mix of facts, but also where the nightingale sat in folklore, particularly poetry. As someone who is ordinarily fascinated with birds, I was naturally intrigued by the nightingale: an elusive songbird with a beautifully compelling sound, sought out by those who longed to hear it. I think it’s the elusive nature of something that can cause us to go on a search to inspire our hearts and minds. Perhaps we are all in search of that rare thing that can ignite our souls. I think we sometimes try and find that in big, bold and obviously beautiful things…but sometimes the best inspiration comes from the unassuming things, the ones you have to dig a bit deeper for.”

Katrina says of this series: “The title, Dream Letter, was inspired by the album and song by Tim Buckley with the same name. The song itself is not the inspiration, but the notion of writing a song, a painting or a letter to someone who may never receive it was the fixation of these works. For Tim, it was writing to his son Jeff Buckley, who he tragically never really made an effort to be a father to. Both their lives have always fascinated me—Tim, a bad father with an amazing vocal range, Jeff his son with equally amazing vocal skills—both not wanting anything to do with the other and yet their lives mirrored each other’s in a deeply compelling way. Both had so much talent and yet crumbled under the weight of it all. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to meet either of them. I wonder about the music they might have made if their fate had been to live on. Some of these imagined conversations play a part in my new works.”

Signed on back.