Jon Oelrichs
Inner and outer; intimate/personal;
and universal, deep and surface.
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ILLUMINATION, 2025?, Oil on Board, ?”x ?”
Biography
Jon Oelrichs is a painter who lives and works in Oro Medonte. Painting for over 35 years, Oelrichs grows increasingly committed to this aspect of his life with the passage of time. “I feel very lucky to have been involved in this project and have learned and grown enormously as a consequence”.
Statement
My response to Albert's work was multidimensional. Salient was the beauty of his piece. Equally felt were the questions of truth and relationship. All three called to be explored in their multidimensional aspects: inner and outer; intimate/personal; and universal, deep and surface. I decided to borrow the First Nations' use of visual symbolism as a way to express these various facets. I sought beauty in the reflection of light on water, in the gnarled shapes of an olive tree, and in references both to the land and the prone human figure suggested by a Georgian Bay rock-scape. The honouring of Truth was discovered in the illuminated Word as well as in personal meditative and contemplative pursuits. Relationship was expressed in the intimacy of a kiss on the lips, the breadth of connection of a flock of migrating birds or travellers in a transit hall. My thanks to Albert for opening the way to these and endless other meanings.