ReMade Artist Spotlight: Maureen O'Sullivan

One customer who visited the showroom last weekend mistook a cluster of artist Maureen O'Sullivan's wood collages as new displays of flooring samples.  We only wish our samples were as lovely as O'Sullivan's art.  Hanging on the back wall we could see how the mistake could have been made - the collages are comprised of rectangular pieces of old wood, some stained, most showing visible signs of wear and old age, or as someone else might call it, character.  This reclaimed wood, come to find out, was salvaged from a reclaimed wood floor installation of a Nantucket home renovation; Maureen herself took the scraps of the reclaimed wood and reclaimed them from finding home once again in a dumpster (3 lives!  Her collages rival the lives of cats!).  Hence, her reclaimed wood art was born, and landfill scraps diverted.

Maureen O'Sullivan, on her work:

The inspiration for this series of wood collages stems from a home renovation that I worked on in Nantucket a few years ago. The architect had purchased a reclaimed floor, originally from a church in Connecticut. The boards didn’t look like much at first. They were dirty and had many years of thick, dark varnish. My job was to refinish the boards and add minimal layers of distressed color. Once finished, the beauty of the grain and the depth of color of the old growth wood was an unexpected surprise to me. The beautiful wide boards were then used throughout the house as drawer fronts on built-ins, closet doors, and custom furniture. 

After completing that project, I collected some leftover scraps and created my first wood collages. In this series, (with the exception of “Ocean Calm”), I created a palette by combining the various original finishes of the floor or the backsides of the boards with some pieces that I have sanded down to show the grain and natural color of the wood. In some cases I added a minimal amount of colored glaze. In my work, I usually use a lot of vibrant color, and it was fun to step away from that a bit. These short lengths and odd bits of wood that I collected would surely have gone into the dumpster or a wood stove, and it is satisfying to have given those pieces a new life.

If you do happen to have reclaimed wood floors or furniture in your home, one of these collages could be the perfect wall piece to accentuate and draw attention to the wood's beauty and detail.  All ReMade art is for sale, with 60% of the proceeds going to the artist and the rest going to the 'g' Foundation, which supports environmental education and renewable energy projects throughout our local Cape Cod community.  Please visit our Mashpee showroom to view the ReMade Invitational Exhibit through November 27, 2010.