Walter ONeill ( he/him )

   The underlying structures in my recent wall sculpture and candelabras reference ecclesiastical and secular memorials, commemorative, or decorative art forms intertwined with suggestive shapes which add a slightly disturbing layer of ambiguity.   My sculptures are inspired by the fecundity of nature intertwined with forms suggestive of body organs.  In my ceramics I explore the dualities of clay and form, interior and exterior, line and shape, wet and dry, malleable and hard, open closed, male and female, death and regeneration, pain and joy.  

Things that merge, mutually altering each other, entities or forms that merge, change one another into something else that triggers another change or form,, and yet another, brings me to think of the nature of intimacy, creation, growth, and the regeneration of form is through intimacy of merging.  And through our most intimate relations we realize our authentic identity, and that our identity is combinatory and fluid.

My ceramic sculpture is a three-dimensional fabrication of worlds where snippets of landscape elements, body organs, or animal forms are composed of a merging of abstract forms tangled, twisted, wrapped around entering and emerging out of various orifices. Merge, change, and evolution are integral to my process.  Just as the body or the environment can be challenged by invasive growth or species, I sometimes incorporate previously discarded fragments of ceramics to disrupt complacency or trigger response.  

I had been a painter most of my life until 2017 when I took a clay class and since then my art practice is focused on ceramics. My art practice quickly evolved from making vessels to creating expressive eccentric abstract sculptures. To focus on my ceramics I have attended several residences including: Watershed Center for Ceramics, Pentaculum at Arrowmont Crafts Center, Skowhegan, and CretaRome, a month long ceramic residency in Rome, Italy.In 2023-24 I was the annual ceramic artist-in-residence at the Bailey Contemporary Art Center (BaCA) in Pompano, Florida. During the opening reception of my solo exhibition at BaCA I invited visitors to participate in making a collaborative sculpture with me.My sculptures have been exhibited in solo and group exhibits in many local venues in south Florida. I have been awarded individual artist grants from the Broward County Division of Cultural Affairs in 2023 and 2024. These grants included a community engagement component which I conducted at a senior center and local art center.  I currently teach an adult clay class for Broward County Community Schools.Throughout my career I have balanced my art practice with working in museums and community art centers.  I conducted education program at The Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum, American Museum of Natural History, and Getty Museum.  I presented fresco workshops at many colleges, museums and community art centers.  After managing the fresco program at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture for a decade I became the Director of the Educational Alliance Art School on the Lower East School. In 2013 I moved tto south Florida to manage the Boca Raton Museum Art School before returning to my full-time art practice in 2017.