Katrina O’Brien’s, Snowflakes into Stars, is part of her solo exhibition, Dream Letter. 

Katrina says of this work: “This work emerged from a simple few words I had written on my studio wall a year or two ago; Tears turned to ashes, turned to snowflakes, turned to stars. There is a transformative power in poetry and painting. These words in particular hold a significance for my life, but they are words we can all relate to; emerging from something and feeling alive again.”

Katrina says of the 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 front.