Jeff Molloy -1
Blessings
At Winchester Galleries on Humboldt Street
Nov. 7 - 21, 2009
Opening Reception
Saturday, November 7, 2009
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Jeff Molloy was born and raised in Toronto where he developed a keen interest in painting, drawing and sculpture. As a youngster he spent much of his spare time hanging around the Henry Moore wing at the Ontario Art Gallery. Molloy’s formal art education began in Edmonton in the 80’s where he studied for a short time with Stone Sculptor Jerry Nason. In 1995 Jeff attended the Victoria School of Contemporary Art for one year and four years later he graduated from The Victoria College of Art.
Molloy has always demonstrated a strong sensitivity to materials. His work explores the materials as much as the subject.
Molloy’s propensity toward sculpture has persisted in his artwork. His fascination with erosion, surface texture, space and form informs much of his work. Jeff’s art does not depend on subject or materials alone, it is created through a wide variety of distinctive techniques, tools, and personal processes; resulting in truly unique, instantly recognizable Jeff Molloy originals.
Molloy is a farmer of art. He creates multidimensional, multi sensory works that bring emotion to the people who experience them, and energy to the spaces they inhabit.
Blessings
This past May Jeff was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer where the only curative measure was radical surgery. On the eve of solstice June 20-21 Jeff went under the knife with a 10 percent chance that the tumour could be fully removed. The surgeon resected the tumour and more than half of his liver. Molloy awoke from surgery on Fathers day surrounded by his loving wife and 3 children knowing that a miracle had happened and he was given another chance. His near death experience has dramatically changed his perspective on life and living. Jeff now steps into each day with a sense of appreciation that only someone who has sat on death's doorstep could possibly understand. Each moment is unique and a gift. Strangely, Jeff produced a foreshadowing in his last painting before being diagnosed. One painting of Tibetan prayer flags; an image that has since been explored more fully since he has been able to return to the studio.
Series One Blessings: The Tibetan prayer flag series teeters between abstract and representational painting, almost to the point of being graphic. A symbol of peace and spirit. A celebration of shape and colour.
Series Two Hanging: Laundry is a recurring theme for Molloy. His reverence for the ordinary and seeing beauty in simple things now seeps into most of his work. The series is primarily encaustic but many of the paintings use a technique Jeff calls oil inlay where the encaustic is scraped away to expose the panel and that space is filled with oil paint.
Series Three Wax & Wool: Over the past year Jeff has painted 60+ paintings of a neighbour’s sheep grazing in the field near his studio. Jeff regards these as peaceful images in a time of turbulence.
Tibetan Prayer Flags, Laundry and Sheep are all images of peace.
Blessings: every moment, every brush stroke, every painting.