NEW WEBSITE: michaelowenoneill.com
My work is a form of personal archaeology. I use deconstructed architectural forms and found detritus to describe historic and often catastrophic events that have transformed the identity of particular places. The sites that interest me are evoked from childhood memory, but are also part of the broader communal history of place. It is my goal to incorporate these rescued bits from antiquated southern culture with contemporary forms in such that they are integrated yet remain distinctly different from each other.

It is important for me to illustrate the fragmentary nature of memory. I am fascinated with how personal memory is both accessed and revealed, how recollections are embellished and enhanced by time, and how in their retelling, memories become history and thus a part of a larger cultural identity.

Over the last century in the United States families and society as a whole have become fragmented with the ease or necessity of relocation. This in some measure has caused the loss of a sense of homestead and connection to place. I make work not only to understand myself and my culture, but also to communicate our continually changing place in the world.


FLOOD
2010
Bracelet
Silver; Pyrex; Driftwood
5.5 x 5.5 x 2 inches


DERACINATE
2011 
Ring 
Silver; Ceramic; Glass
4.25 x 2.25 x 2.5 inches 



DWELL
2011 
Necklace
Silver; Texas Blackland Prairie Dirt; Ceramic; Wood; Plaster Molding; Mica; Book (Pages from a Songbook; Cardboard; Book Cloth; Thread)
19.25 x 1.25 x 1.125 inches 


OWEN
2011 
Ring
Silver; Mica; Hair; Paper; Ribbon; Thread
2 x 1.75 x 1.75 inches

RAISE
2011 
Brooch 
Silver; Ceramic; Mica; Texas Blackland Prairie Dirt; Glass; Steel
2.25 x 4 x 1 inches

ECHO POINT
2011 
Brooch 
Silver; Ceramic; Steel
1.75 x 1.75 x .75 inches




DISINTER SERIES
2011 
Rings
Silver; Ceramic
1.25 x .75 x .625 inches



HOMESTEAD
2011 
Ring
Silver; Red Sandstone
4.5 x 3 x 1.75 inches