Olga Spiegel

Psycherealism  , the mind's eye, and the Art of Pareidolia

Inspiration exists when the soul finds joy in the infinite.

I was born and raised in Europe, and now live and have established my studio in New York City. I find my freedom at the wild frontier of Imagination and my work is nurtured by Psychedelic Art  in the 60's,  European Fantastic realism, Surrealism, and Science Fiction. It has evolved from influences ranging from the abstract and optical energy field influences of the 1960's through study of the Old Master's techniques with Ernst Fuchs, to my current Visionary language , which now includes digital computer- generated paintings. My inner process suggests a chemical-visual interaction where I decipher messages from my deepest inner self intimates and symbols that bring the viewer to the edge of realism and unnamable forms. These improvised works reveal mysterious universes composed of free flowing images and colors vibrations. Yet they evoke ancient icons and space-age imagery that hint at the metaphysical and reveal an evolutionary flowering, nature and its organisms as we know them bursting into myriad new forms. My paintings are spaces of wonder that point to ever changing notions of the Universe and our sense of Being, our yearning for an ecology of the soul. For me, fine art does not necessarily fit neatly into a context, it is more like medical science, constantly searching for a cure. As the human imagination expands, so does the Universe. This energy fuels our survival,  journeys into fantastic dimensions. I recently heard a term that intrigued and resonated deeply within me, that seemed to capture the evolution of my art: Pareidolia.

Pareidolia (/pærᵻˈdoʊliə/ parr-i-doh-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon involving a stimulus (an image or a sound) wherein the mind perceives a familiar pattern of something where none actually exists. 

In terms of painting, focusing on the texture of a painted surface can reveal numerous layers and conger up countless images embedded in a fractal way of faces, fields, architecture, flashes of Rembrandt, Picasso. Impressionists, Op-Art and realism, a visual poetry akin to automatic writing, different frequencies born of the interplay of Surrealism, Symbolism, and Abstraction. My work has been shown in galleries and is included in private collections in Europe and America as well as cited in many books and publications.

http://olga-spiegel.squarespace.com

‘Transit’

‘A Moment in Time’