long-time on-site painter of the Gowanus Canal area of Brooklyn, O’Reilly has moved indoors - taking her subject with her - to further her exploration of the subject in collage with watercolor-tinted paper. Trading the brush for an x-acto knife, O’Reilly reduces the forms with the simplest of means to imbue the work with a flush of modernity.

Attracted as always by the vivid color of industry against the muted colors of nature, O’Reilly pares down the body of her composition. Taking the best of what watercolor can offer in terms of transparency and light, O’Reilly eliminates the soft edges expected in this medium and substitutes a decisive, unpredictable edge. Clouds are flattened with a wash of color and come to an unexpected stop with the hard edge of the knife. Water - which we think of as fluid and soft - becomes an irrevocable shape, and complex architectural structures are reduced to colors and shapes. The economy of the cutting motion simplifies the description of a form.

While the paintings came from more than a decade of standing and painting in the same spots, the coming to a slow understanding and knowing of a place, the constraints of the medium of collage allows the expression of the repeating rhythm of the forms. The focus moves away from the place, and on to an interplay of color and shape.