Science fiction is a major influence for mixed-media artist Chaz O’Neil

It was a young boy’s fascination with animated cartoons, comic books and super heroes that first captivated Chaz O’Neil and drew his attention to art.

A serious artist since high school, O’Neil says his greatest influence has been science fiction, as well as astronomy, space exploration and mapping. Excelling in industrial design during high school adds to the direction the north Columbus resident goes with his art.

“I get a lot of my linework and acute sense of scale and measurements from that training,” O’Neil says.

As an artist, his style is driven by the environment in which he creates his art, the available supplies and space, which is often limited.

“I think every artist struggles with those confines of a studio and living situation,” says O’Neil.

His earlier style of art was geared more toward painting and drawing, while his current style is a mixture of drawing and collage. He often takes inspiration from his collection of what he calls “found paper” and other materials, as well as from clear transparencies of sci-fi images that he cuts up and meshes together into collages.

One of his favorite pieces, Valles, is a strong example of the sci-fi influence. Described as having a planetary landscape with a little texture and geographical variation, Valles is a colorful mixed media painting on a wooden panel.

“My art often starts in my mind, and the drawing evolves as I am making it,” says O’Neil. “I see every groove or rock in the paintings in my mind as I would in space, and the ideas just come out in my work.”

About 90 percent of O’Neil’s art, he estimates, is influenced by his visions of a lunar or Martian landscape, with light and shadow another big component of his artworks.

“You can see how the shadows appear to shift first one way and then another in Valles,” he says.

His primary forms of art have been painting, drawing and print. He has a number of installations at Otterbein University, done individually and in collaboration with another artist.

Born in Hartford, Ohio, O’Neil says his two older brothers are also artistic and helped to nurture his talent.

“As a child, I was always drawing superheroes, putting them in comic books, and they encouraged me,” he says.

Now 33, he takes art seriously both in his day job and in his career as an artist.

For the past 12 years, O’Neil has been with the Ohio State Fair and Expo Center, where he is assistant director of fine arts. It is an ideal job, he says, because of the relationships he builds with other artists, and because he finds helping new artists develop and grow their careers rewarding.

“This job keeps me connected to artists in Ohio,” he says. “I like that I can promote their art and I get satisfaction putting their work on exhibit, helping them with displays, watching them get awards and selling their pieces.”

Another major influence for O’Neil was renowned planetary scientist and astrophysicist Carl Sagan. This influence can be found in O’Neil’s painting The Arrival, a mixed media on canvas piece.

“I like to use references from Sagan and apply it into my art,” he says. “The Arrival represents a NASA spacecraft that exited the solar system years ago, one that Carl Sagan was fascinated with.”

On the Pioneer spacecraft, O’Neil says, is a gold plate designed by Sagan and his wife with a diagram of a man and woman, along with some math and mapping symbols to find Earth, should someone in space come across that satellite.

O’Neil is among a group of state of Ohio employees who moonlight as artists. They will be part of the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery exhibition After Hours, running May 4-July 8.

O’Neil graduated from Otterbein in 2006 with a bachelor of arts degree. He continues to be involved with Otterbein, where he works as its museum and gallery assistant in charge of installing campus art exhibits. Additionally, he serves as the collection registrar, with responsibility for the university’s permanent contemporary and global collections.

“I enjoy working with students, teaching them how to matte and frame, present their artwork and put together their collections,” he says.

He hopes to continue his mentoring relationships with other artists and pass along his knowledge through teaching sometime in the future. In the meantime, O’Neil is glad that he not only can live his art, but work in art as well.

“I consider a professional artist as someone who can make a living making their work,” he says. “You find that right balance of time – and when you can make your work and get paid for it, that’s a win-win.”

Kathy L. Woodard is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

RELATED READS