Painting Big Ideas

It’s called crowd sourcing, Brendan O’Connell says. When a company or, say, a government has a problem, it broadens the search and asks the public for help. This painter says he is doing something like that. O’Connell, working on “the art of the everyday” as he puts it, walked into Torrington’s Walmart one day back in 2004 and ended up making a name for himself by photographing the shelves and the shoppers. He had the idea that superstores like this have replaced commercial boulevards where people once picked up food, clothes, news, a sense of community. Now Walmart has crammed all that under one roof creating what O’Connell sees, with his refreshing sense of hyperbole, as “the most visited interior architecture on the planet.” Then, back in his studio in Cornwall, he projects images of these photos onto a canvas as a loose template, settles into the dark and paints over them, picking up the the colors and patterns he finds there. His painting, and probably his verbal gifts, have earned him exhibits from here to Shanghai and attention in art journals, on National Public Radio and, as he says on his Everyday Walart site, “Hollywood’s A-list.” Now he’s crowd sourcing, “foraging for more inspiration,” he says, asking people to send him their photos of Walmart shelves piled with Wonder Bread and Velveeta or of shoppers poring over T-shirts, sneakers, bath towels, underwear. “Of course you can’t go in there with a big phallic machine” as O’Connell did with his Canon camera back in 2004, which got him kicked out of the store. He says a cell phone will get the shot and go unnoticed. Then just upload images from Walmart or Sam’s Club stores to Facebook.com/everydaywalart. “If your photo becomes Brendan O’Connell’s next painting,” the site promises, “you will receive a signed print.” And no attribution. And for those who simply want to see O’Connell’s work, he is exhibiting his paintings at The Hotchkiss School’s Tremaine Gallery through Nov. 18, with an artist’s reception Oct. 13, from 4 to 6 p.m. For information: 860-435-3663.