The Mountains Beckon

Leisa O'Gorman is a self-taught artist from Brisbane/Meanjin who seeks to intuitively capture the ephemeral essence of landscape. Sitting somewhere between realism and abstract interpretation, her work hopes to convey a landscape which exists beyond time, place and memory. Through subtle use of light and shade, she hopes the viewer is taken to a place in distant memory, a place of transcendent evocation that resonates with their experience, a place known and unknown.

Leisa grew up as a childhood carer of her mother who experienced frequent acute episodes of psychotic depression. Since her mother’s passing, she has grown to appreciate her mother's tremendous strength and resilience and the complexity of what it means to live with mental health issues. 

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For each of us there exists a place of release, a place where we can meet ourselves and sense the infiniteness of all things. In the mountains, I find my sense of home. There is a wildness there that connects with the hidden selves we carry. In this place “the world offers itself to our imagination, calls to us like the wild geese, harsh and exciting” (Mary Oliver). When the world is too much, the mountains beckon.