PAINTINGS Sarah Gallagher Streitz

unfinished Hank Williams #2

2012-02-23T13:03:00.001-08:00

Hank Williams, look into those eyes and see deep love and sorrow all at the same time. I tried to paint this great man who died so young with that sparkle he had in his eyes when he sang so beautifully.

Hank Williams

2012-02-16T11:39:00.001-08:00

Hank Williams at about 14

portrait of Man Ray

2012-02-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

Portrait of Shostakovich

2012-01-18T09:38:00.001-08:00

Copy of a Frida Kahlo

2011-04-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

Fatigue

2011-01-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

On the verge

2010-12-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

Saying The Rosary

2010-11-21T17:36:00.001-08:00

say a rosary
say a few prayer
lie down

Romantica

2010-06-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

I loved the colors and the carnival feeling of this photograph of the band Romantica so I painted it.

Farmer's Daughter

2010-05-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

If I had been born 100 years ago, I would have been a farmer's daughter ...

Mother

2010-05-21T12:14:00.001-07:00

12 years milking
four children.
painting this Malaysian woman,
i was painting myself.

Serious Child

2010-04-09T09:20:00.001-07:00

Kiki's Quilt

2010-04-09T06:45:00.000-07:00

I call this painting "Kiki's Quilt" because the patchwork of the dress is actually a photograph of a quilt my great aunt Kiki Tierney made years ago. I was trying to paint a self portrait with the quilt covering me as I lay on a bed. I could not get it right, so instead, I painted over myself and turned the quilt covered bed into a dress. Here, the woman covers herself with the past --she wears it because there is nothing else to wear but it.

Recession

2010-03-09T11:32:00.001-08:00

This is an in your face painting, of a child or maybe even a woman as thin as a depression era farmer's daughter. In today's world, our houses are too big, our bellies are too full and we are steeped in debt because of over consumption. Perhaps we need to remember the depression when people had so little and survived all the same.

Tierney Brothers #2

2010-02-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

Brothers all dressed up in the bright sunlight, postures tilted, reluctant smiles- has my grandpa graduated from high school? He is the only one fully suited. Where are the other five brothers? Where is their only sister? Did a family meal follow? Did they enjoy a pint(or two)? In the original photograph they stood in a treeless field but I chose to paint them in front of their family home as I did their mother and her sisters.

Tierney Brothers

2010-02-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Brothers with angular faces, legs as thin as beans, all dressed up .. where have they been? A graduation, a wedding? I paint them floating, emerging mysteriously from the canvas. Unsolved mysteries they are, the whole lot of them!

The Farmer

2010-02-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

Here is another straight up portrait. It may be the brother of my German great grandfather, Peter Streitz. It may be my great grandfather McDonald's brother, for they too were farmers. In the original photograph, the man stands alone in a field. He appears to be wearing clothes typical of the 1930s which could make him either of my dad's grandfathers' brothers. In the photo he stands in front of crops with a hoe. I wonder what he was tending to this day and why he chose to pause for a photograph? He does not look particularly happy. Perhaps his wife, a brother, or a child convinced him that one day this may be of interest to someone. That someone is me!

My Great Grandma

2010-02-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

A companion piece to "Tom Tierney," I also consider this to be a straight up portrait. This is my great-grandma, as she appeared in a photograph taken around 1935. She does not look happy. But heck! It was winter in Superior, Wisconsin, who would be? Mary Larkin Tierney had ten children, nine boys and one girl. Can you imagine, leaving your country, coming to a new land and then having to feed ten children? Have Mercy! I forgive Mary Larkin for her sour look that day.

Irish Ancestral Folk Art: At the Cabin

2010-02-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

This painting of my great grandparents Tom and Mary Tierney, my great aunt, Kiki Tierney, my mom and another child is based on a photograph circa 1937. They are sitting on the steps of my grandparents' cabin in Northwestern Wisconsin. The photograph is overexposed and full of bright light. I chose to leave the painting "unfinished" looking because for me, their stories will always be so. This is so sad, and yet, I am filled with warmth when I look at them. I can hear the timbre of their accents ... those who called their first language Irish and were told upon leaving their country by the town's priest, "Don't ever forget..you're Irish first!"

Grandpa Tierney

2010-02-03T13:46:00.000-08:00

This is a painting based on a photograph of my grandpa circa 1929. He has recently purchased land on a lake in Northwestern Wisconsin. Here, he fishes next to a boat. I sense that my grandpa is at peace. It seems very quiet and I wonder if anyone else was around? Obviously someone took this picture but it almost seems like the photographer is omniscient. (Is that the right word? I don't care!) But I love this painting of my grandpa when he was so young and handsome.

Irish Ancestral Folk Art: Tom Tierney

2010-02-03T13:10:00.000-08:00

You are looking at a straight up portrait of my great-grandfather, Thomas Tierney. His real name was Thomas Hernon, but when he got to America, they changed his name to Tierney because he came from a village in Galway called, Tiernee. He came here with 3 brothers around 1890, and stayed, only after having returned to Ireland twice before his decision to leave was final. A number of his siblings never did leave and these cousins of mine remain in Tiernee today.

Irish Ancestral Folk Art: The Moores

2010-02-03T13:01:00.000-08:00

This painting is loosely based on a photograph I had of my Moore relatives circa 1907. A large group of beautifully black Irish men and women gathered in field, dressed up and having a good time. I added images of the Irish countryside and an Irish road sign (a reference to my Tierney homeland) to suggest the cultural crossings that are inevitable as a result of leaving one place for another.

The Gallaghers

2010-02-03T12:53:00.001-08:00

I call this painting, "The Gallaghers" because it is of my grandmother, Loretta Gallagher Tierney, her sister, Mary Gallagher, my aunt Helen Tierney and my mother, (the baby), Paddy Tierney. They are in a boat on a lake in Northwestern Wisconsin. I am sure my grandfather took this picture. I love that it is candid and close up. When I painted it, I felt closer to the grandmother I never knew.

Irish Ancestral Folk Art: The Larkin sisters

2010-02-03T12:18:00.001-08:00

Lately I have been painting images of my Irish great grandparents. Here, my great grandmother and her sisters share a moment on her front steps--circa 1938. I wonder what they were doing before this photo was taken? Sharing a cup of tea? (Did they have tea in Superior, Wisconsin in the 1930s?) Who took this picture? My grandfather? It is indeed a beautiful photograph of a lost time. Though I will never know its full story I feel closer to their spirits having painted it.