Windy O’Connor never intended to become an artist. Instead, she studied theater and design at East Carolina University, but left her creative studies behind to work as a pharmaceutical sales rep — a career she loved. But after starting a family (her daughter is 16 and her son is 14), she took a chance painting class. That one class (followed by four years of serious study) launched her into a second career as a painter. Now, when she’s not at home in her beautifully restored, historic carriage house on the grounds of the former Governor Morrison estate, she turns out abstract masterpieces from her studio in SouthPark.
How did you get started as a painter?
It was definitely a switch! I have always been artistic my entire life. My mom was very crafty. My sister went to art school. I had to constantly draw, color, make something, design something, sew something. I took some painting classes and that’s all it took; I was hooked.
Did it take a while for people to take you seriously as an artist?
I think that people assume that all these artists have fun and it’s a hobby. And that is not the case at all! I started painting, and then I realized I have to practice every day if I want to get better. I started painting four hours a day. Taking classes. I took four years of just painting classes, concentrating only in painting. I was obsessed. I’ve only felt comfortable enough to sell my work about nine years ago.
How did you decide to focus on abstract art?
You start out, traditionally, with landscapes and still life and figurative work. I enjoy it, but I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do abstract work. And that is a different skill, using a different part of your brain. You have to really work at it. It’s like switching and massaging and exercising a part of my brain. The kind of high certain people get a high from exercising, I get from exercising that part of my brain. If I skip a few days or a week, I can tell! It takes me a good three days to get my work back to that level.
Where do you find inspiration?
I really do love fashion and design. Valentino. I even take photographs of different things: patterns that different designers use … I find inspiration everywhere.
Libby Smart [another Charlotte artist] once told me that as an artist, you start to see the world differently. She’s right. You do see the world differently in that you see color. I see all of the color at night when I’m driving in the rain. I also realized that there’s all this visual imagery in our memory that you automatically end up using as a painter.
I don’t look at anything when I paint. I don’t look at a photograph, an image, fruit sitting on a table … it’s definitely visual memory. I paint these kind of fruit orb things, but I think it’s just a color memory of growing up as a child in the South with magnolia trees and blackberry bushes.
What emotions do you want your paintings to inspire in people?
I’ve always been told that I’m a fairly happy person. I remember when I first started painting, people would say “Oh, your work is so happy.” There’s a piece of me in the art: my energy, my spirituality, whatever. And if it’s happy, that’s what I want people to experience. That’s what I strive for.
Tell us about your creative process.
My process is more about the materials itself. I love to learn. My husband bought me a painting for my birthday one year; I became obsessed with figuring out how to do it. I do all mixed media. Ink, acrylic, oil, alcohol-based ink, water-based ink, artist’s grade spray paint — just to get an atmospheric look. I don’t know how that comes into my head but it just makes sense when I’m doing it.
I do paint pretty fast. But it’s taken me all of these years to be able to do it! I make such a mess. It just spreads like wildfire. I have to have a studio for the sanity of my whole sweet family. I go all day long. Sometimes I can get several started at once.
Maybe finish something, maybe not. There are certain ones I’ll go back and visit a month or two later. And some, I remember this painting I did, it was one of the quickest … it just, like, happened. And it was the first thing sold out of that series. I think sometimes it’s more about the energy that goes onto that canvas, and if it works it just works.
So then, how do you know when a painting is finished?
That is the key of and probably the greatest gift of experience. Knowing when to stop. My art teacher, he would say, “Put the brush down, put the brush down.” It’s really paying attention and listening. If it tells me it’s finished, it’s told its story, then I’ll leave it alone. And sometimes that takes a while.
What does success look like for you as an artist?
Everyone’s success is something different for them. For me, it’s not about the sales. For me, it’s creating the level of art that I want to create. And I feel like it’s a lifetime journey.
Where can we find or purchase your work?
My paintings are at AJ Willie Gallery in Naples, Fla., at the High Point Furniture Market in April (I’ve never done it before!), and on my website, windyoconnor.com
Thank you to Ariana Clair for today’s gorgeous photographs!
