Thirty-four years ago Liam O'Neill began to work
as an apprentice woodturner under John Shiel at Bagenalstown,
whilst there, he was in close contact with the Kilkenny Design
Workshops. He then worked for nearly eleven years setting up and
managing the woodturning section of Retos, the rehabilitation
facility for handicapped adults established at Shannon, Co. Clare.
During this time, he attended courses in advanced woodturning, led
by internationally known creative woodturners such as the
Americans David Ellsworth and Bob Stocksdale. He was influential
in setting up the Irish Woodturners Guild, in response to his own
experience and the numbers of people who were moving into the area
of professional woodturning.
From 1983-85, he won First Prize in the Royal
Dublin Society's Craft Competition (Wood Turning Section). In
1984, he was awarded the Dr. Muriel Gahan Scholarship to the
U.S.A. to travel and study with leading American Woodturners.
Since 1992 Liam O'Neill has worked from his own Studio at Spiddal,
Co. Galway, where he has been supported by Udaras na Gaeltachta.
Whilst he makes large-scale production work, his interests has
always lain in the way in which he could use woodturning
creatively to make unique sculptural pieces. The creative thinking
involved in this work plays back upon his production design
thinking.
The development of woodturning techniques has
always been important to Liam O'Neill. A creative idea develops,
technical rethinking becomes necessary. By September 1997, he had
designed and built a huge outdoor lathe to make the large vessels
on show outdoors here. What is exciting about this body of outdoor
work, is not simply its scale or the technical complexity of
evaluating the wood used, but the fact that these outdoor pieces
are elements in a single series. Some woodturners have used large
scale turning, but none here or elsewhere have produced a body of
such pieces as part of a coherent single body of thought and
creative expression. The result is that their scale brought up
those of the indoor pieces, many of which are large. In sculptural
and woodturning terms, this is an exciting and adventurous
project. It literally and metaphorically takes the possibilities
of woodturning into new dimensions.
"Liam O'Neill is a unique sculptor who is first
and foremost a master craftsman, and artist with a unique
understanding of his medium.
He has studied the physiology of trees, what
characteristics nature has given to different woods. His training
made him an expert in woodturning techniques, but not content with
this, he began to express himself and experiment, while at the
same time allowing nature always to dictate.
In recent times, he has begun to scale up the
work to fashion massive outdoor vessels. To see a collection of
these sculptures together is to witness a powerful personal
artistic statement about renewal, about the bringing forth of
exciting forms from dead trees, the transformation of a block of
wood into a work of art.
There are no embellishments, no ornate
decorations in his work, only those nature intended. He uses the
grain, the natural patina, the contours, the various arboreal
qualities to his advantage, to give us the very essence of the
wood.
These are tactile pieces which demand that you
explore the surfaces whether they be textured or polished.
Ben Okri, the Nigerian novelist once said "The
higher the art, the fewer the gestures." Liam O'Neill's creative
harvesting of his much loved materials leave us in no doubt that
his is a very high art form." Tom Kenny, The Kenny Art
Gallery, Galway
