Bill O'Donnell - Home

Bill O'Donnell's Opening and Art Talk
Tuesday, June 10, was the opening reception of Bill O’Donnell’s exhibition, HOME, in the Arts Center’s Armstrong Gallery. The exhibition continues through July 19, 2003.

Bill O’Donnell’s silver gelatin prints are of dioramas created in his studio. This series, HOME, is represented in Midwest Photographers Project at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Illinois.

Bill O’Donnell is Assistant Professor of Photography at Illinois State University. He received his B.A. in photography from the Union of Experimenting Colleges and Universities and his M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. O’Donnell has received numerous fellowships and awards, and has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions nationally since 1981.

O’Donnell states about HOME: “This work addresses a familiar, ancient allegory: Life is a journey whose ultimate destination is a return to Home. The security and comfort of the literal home are readily extended to an ideal, figurative home, a refuge of total contentment at the end of all days. Of course the problem in this homely symbolism is that Death is the price of admission. The idea of an afterlife has always harbored this perplexing dilemma. As a consequence, the heavenly home can be at once alluring and ominous, close and inaccessible, familiar and full of mystery.” - Bill