
DEIRDRE MURPHY
Philadelphia, PA
Past Exhibitions Biography CV Statement
“I investigate the complexities of relationships — be they groups of birds, clusters of stars or shards of geometric color shapes. Flocks of starlings and the astromatrixes of stellar constellations are metaphors for the mental maps of our contemporary social networking. I am fascinated by the murmurations of flocking birds and how they shift and pulsate in a collective movement. Each bird’s movement causes a different flock shape to illuminate in the sky just as each season we see different star constellations.”
– Deirdre Murphy

“A single bird turns and causes its neighbor to move, thus setting off a simultaneous change reaction that transforms hundreds of birds inside the flock to undulate. What creates this uncanny, beautiful coordination of these birds? How does their collective consciousness cause the flock to paint such abstract shapes in the sky? I see a correlation of pattern in the stellar explosion of a supernova and the growth of irregular cellular formation. In my paintings, I try and decode such patterns, to find the push or pulse within, to discover the visual force of energy that makes unpredictable abstract shapes. It is the butterfly effect, of one individual causing great change among others that is the subject of my art.”
– Deirdre Murphy

“I lived in Japan and the round windows in the Japanese tea gardens had a profound effect on me. I love the focused way a garden window can bring meditation and mindfulness.”
— Deirdre Murphy