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Don Overbeay

 

Don Overbeay

Artist Statement

“You know painting is like hands stuck in a mattress”
Franz Kline

Painting’s simplicity and directness seemingly offers the artist the ability to construct a limitless range of alternate realities in the most spontaneous manner. The truth is painting lays bare the limitations of the individual’s mind with brutal clarity. It provides fleeting moments of inspiration and satisfaction with large doses of repeated disappointment. The simple desire to be a good painter is not so simple when put in practice, for we confront the raw truth about ourselves every time we face the canvas. It is a discipline of humility which demands absolute confidence, if there is any chance of progression. It is this confrontation with the self that provides the potential for discovery and ascension, and it is that which gives this parsimonious practice its allure.

These paintings are fundamentally subversive and about freedom and painting.

They mark a desire to return to the spontaneity of painting, after a seven year investigation of mixed media assemblage and light. The work of Philip Guston has acted as my doorway back into painting. I have always been drawn to both the graphic nature and direct narrative of his work, it readily provides the opportunity for commentary.

Artist Biography

Don Overbeay was born in Columbus, Ohio, in the heart of mid-west corn country. At a young age his family relocated to the deep south, Atlanta, Georgia. He spent long hours playing on his own and later developed, through fraternal influence, an interest in science fiction and B movies. He began university in the pre-medical program, but was required to take introductory drawing course as a condition of enrolment, having never taken an art course in high school. Before long his passion grew and the majority of his time was dedicated to making art. Upon graduating from Ohio State University, Don was accepted into the University of Alabama and studied with the painter A.C. Sella an advocate of abstract expressionism.

After university Don travelled to Bangkok, Thailand to make and teach art. In the ensuing years he returned to the United States and taught art at various universities across the country. During this time Don travelled and studied art extensively in Europe and Southeast Asia.

From 2005-2008 Don enjoyed a synaptic break from reality, but due to his continued employment in tertiary education, it went largely unnoticed. Reality returned with a vengeance upon the marrying of his wife Cherie Sayer and the birth of his daughter Destin. They have been huge influences in his life, having taught him patience and what is truly important in life.

Shortly after the birth of Destin, the family moved to his wife’s home country of New Zealand. Not long following his arrival, Don secured employment as the Head of the Creative Arts Department at Waiairki Institute of Technology in Rotorua.

Most recently Don has returned to the directness and simplicity of painting, largely in reaction to working within the New Zealand tertiary education sector.