Ira Goldberg: Your educational experience is connected with twentieth-century modernism, coming out of Hans Hoffmann, through Vaclav Vytlacil. You work with nature to derive its essence in studied observation without reflecting specifics on the canvas. Has this approach become outmoded by the advent of instant imagery?
Frank O’Cain: Well, it could be, if it stayed nature. But when I’m done, it’s about energy and form. The whole purpose is to use nature as an extension into another part of your mind. I believe that there’s a base built in its structure that gives you a premise—a place in which to push/pull your colors around. Nature just provides my imagination with a place to absorb. Once that’s done, there are certain things you will pick up, like the gesture of a leaf or the shape or the color of the foliage. As I start removing a literal depiction of it, replacing it with the relationship of the energy that comes through perceiving combinations of texture, movement, and water, I’m removing myself from nature. I’m moving instead into a personalization of the world in general.