Artist channels his anxiety into work

“You can find beauty in a single line that isn’t straight,” said artist Patrick Driscoll.

Driscoll’s exhibit, “I offer so much, but commit so little,” appears in the Fireplace Gallery beginning March 4 and runs through March 28.

The exhibit will feature untitled paintings that fall under a collective title: “offers”. They are part of a 26-piece ongoing project, all on the same scale and on unstretched canvas.

“I think of them all as kind of pages in a sketchbook,” said Driscoll. “I’m perpetually making these offers, but I never really pick that many of them up and make really nice finished paintings that have proper titles.”

There also will be several finished pieces on show, such as his piece, “As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,” which shows a bee with the words “Oh no” placed over it.

“There’s this mythological component that I like, of the icon of the bee,” Driscoll said, describing the bee’s link to divinity and human origins in mythology.

The “Oh no” reflects his personal skepticism of contemporary religion as mythology. Also, when he was young he was significantly allergic to honey bees, and they still make him anxious.

This work is the most finished of the collection and “it really is like a statement” of how he feels as an artist, inside the studio and about his anxiety, he said.

For the exhibit Driscoll tried to pick “a nice smattering of variation” in his style of painting.

“There’s all these different styles of work present, and how I don’t actually commit to any of these styles, I guess it has to do with me being anxious and not committing to anything,” he said.

He draws inspiration through sci-fi and horror movies, existentialism, philosophy, from music and “from the canon of, like, 20^th century painters,” he said.

“A big theme about my painting is kind of confusion and anxiety. I’m so confused by my own work.”

While growing up in Indianapolis, he played in several punk bands that put him in contact with other artistic people. That interest in music and art took shape about 15 years ago.

“There’s some relationship between my paintings and music. It’s not entirely evident; it wouldn’t be definite to anyone outside of my brain, but it’s definitely there,” Driscoll said.

He draws inspiration from the abstract expressionism style and hopes in his paintings to create a sense of an artist at work in a studio.

He received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Herron School of Art and Design in Indiana and recently completed his master’s degree at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) in Portland.

“My lifelong goal is to consistently keep making things. Whether or not, you know, I get recognition or not, isn’t really a concern for me,” he said. “What makes me happy is when I’m in the studio.”

Teaching art is part of Driscoll’s plan. “I still want to share the passion of making art and teaching is a good way of doing that.”

In the fall he found a call for submissions for the Fireplace Gallery and submitted his art. He was selected to show his exhibit at MHCC after looking for college galleries in which to show his work.

He said, “I like the idea of showing in institutions of education, because I think that’s one of the most important things about art, its educational component.”

Outside of producing art, he plays drums recreationally, enjoys cooking spicy food and commuting by bike.

Driscoll said he loves cooking and gets excited about ingredients “in the same way that I get really excited about art supplies. Everything, I feel, is tied together by this same desire to create something.”

He began working at a Whole Foods store during high school and continues to work at one in Portland. “It supports my bills and helps me to buy art supplies,” he said.

The work on exhibit in the Fireplace Gallery will be for sale, helping Driscoll to continue his pursuit.

“That’s the hope I have, to always be creative,” he said. “The real challenge is, like, finding beauty in a line or finding beauty in whatever gesture you put on a canvas.”