O’Leary’s art originates from a life lived on a farm in rural Ireland, and a spiritual connection to that land and rural way of life. In a time when many younger Irish artists have adopted critical theory, digital technology, and international styles severed from their cultural roots, O’Leary’s work possesses a life-lived authenticity and hands-on craftsmanship that sets it apart. 

O’Leary extends this tradition in her art, in which the artist’s hand is present in every piece—bits of wood are often repurposed from earlier works, cut and joined, assembled and reassembled like words or sentences in a story.

I’m also thinking of things like the people who made clothes for us, of dressmakers and knitters, of painting as container and keep-safe . . . of ornament and its opposite, of frugal make do’ism. We had no place for sentimentality growing up, it was hard against hard, the art of survival, of cold, of labor, of jobs too big for children. It was about patriarchy, and the vulnerability of children and the hardship of women. It was of course about magic, about ancient belief, and markers in the land that told us we were somehow keepers of that place, that it had existed before time, it had magic stones, devils marks, places where horses for no reason shied, or the unexplainable forces around us.

by Helen O’leary

https://brooklynrail.org/2018/06/artseen/HELEN-OLEARYHome-is-a-Foreign-Country/