Art Feature: Isabelle O’Connor and Her Journey With Printmaking

Artist Interview by Jacob Anderson-Kester

What would you describe as your art’s purpose, in brief?

It varies depending on the project, but overall, I want my art to give people a feeling of closeness and intimacy. I try to invoke memory and a sense of place. I want my pieces to feel like glimpses into tender moments. 

Can you give me some background as to your upbringing, what brought you to Evergreen, and what you’ve done/been doing at Evergreen?

I’m interested in exploring the concepts of home and physical space. Naturally, that has led me to explore my body, as it’s the space that I inhabit.

I grew up in rural Vermont. I had a pretty idyllic childhood; we lived off-grid, at the end of a very steep, half-mile driveway, which we frequently had to walk up in the winter because of all the snow. I spent a lot of time outside, building fairy houses and making forts. I always liked creating stuff as a kid. I went to a Waldorf school which allowed me to explore all sorts of creative mediums. I remember knitting a bikini in my second-grade handwork class! But I didn’t think of art as something I wanted to pursue until high school. I went to a small high school with basically no art department. I think it was the lack of resources there that really pushed me to find a place where making art was taken seriously. After graduating, I went to art school for a semester, but I was frustrated with how constrained my class options were. Looking back, I think I just wasn’t ready to decide what I wanted to do yet.

I came to Evergreen a few years ago. I was living in New York after dropping out of art school and was struggling to feel at home in the city. One day I felt a strong urge to move to the West Coast, I had heard of Evergreen growing up (always referred to as the wacky school where my parent’s hippie friends went), so I applied and moved out here! Very spur of the moment. 

Printmaking has been my main focus at Evergreen. My work is inspired by research, primarily mythology, religion and gender studies, so those have been focuses as well. I’ve done a lot of independent work at Evergreen, in SOS programs and ILCs. Having that creative freedom has been essential for my process.  

What was your door into printmaking? What do you feel is particularly strong or unique about printmaking as an artform re: your artistic expression?

I was introduced to printmaking in high school. Everything about the process felt right; it was like a remembering. There’s such a rich history to it. The medium has served so many different purposes over so many thousands of years. That history guides my work. I’m influenced by Japanese woodcuts, medieval bookmaking, political poster art and so much more; there’s a lot of inspiration to draw from. My work feels like a collaboration with the history, materials and process of printmaking. 

A lot of your prints explore the human form. What about this focus draws you into it? What has this focus done to help inform your worldview and view of yourself?

I’m interested in exploring the concepts of home and physical space. Naturally, that has led me to explore my body, as it’s the space that I inhabit. I did a series of self-portraits last year, depicting my naked body in spaces where I would normally be clothed. It was meant to be an exploration of our perceptions of the female nude and how women’s bodies are sexualized, which is a theme in a lot of my work. I wanted to make work that subverted the traditional notions about how women’s bodies are portrayed in art. 

Throughout my teenage years, I felt pretty objectified and sexualized; a part of the self-portrait series was me saying, “I am sexualizing my body for my own pleasure; therefore, I hold the power; I beat you to it.” This isn’t necessarily where I want my work to stay, but making that statement was a powerful part of my personal process. 

A very cool and unique aspect of your art is that some of it is done on wood. Wood has its own form, via the shape of it, the lines within it, and so on; when you approach a piece of art, how does your artistic process factor in this medium?

Yes! I’ve been working with wood for a while, mostly by carving it for my woodcuts. The feeling of carving wood with a sharp tool is like nothing else — it brings me a lot of joy! Aesthetically, I prefer using wood instead of linoleum because I like the natural texture of the wood grain that shows through in the prints. 

I usually like the woodblocks that I carve more than the pieces I print from them, so for my most recent series, I carved and drew onto pieces of wood and had the wood serve as the finished piece. I was exploring the connection between women and water, so I made a series [of] bathing scenes. I wanted the figuring of the woodgrain to mimic the quality of water. 

Where do you want to take your art, both in the sense of its literal place in your life, as well as future subjects and processes?

I’m still figuring that out. I used to feel a lot of pressure to decide what I wanted to “do” with my art degree; people love to ask art majors that question. I’m graduating this spring but I’m not in a rush to try to turn my art into a career. I have other interests that I plan to pursue as a career, but I’m sure my art will always be a part of my life. 

In terms of future projects, I’m currently working on some illustrations re-imagining characters from the Greek tragedy, The Oresteia!

To keep up with Isabelle’s art, you can follow them on Instagram @isabellelunaart.