By Kate Quach

In a Sunset District neighborhood on New Year’s Eve, one house’s lights are still left on. Inside, Jeremiah Daly props up a blank canvas in the corner of his living room before the clock strikes 12.

With the calendar flipped to the last month of 2018, he gathers fresh paints and brushes around him. He tries his hand at painting for the first time, freely swashing on layers of color spilling from his palette. Swirls, slashes and speckles rush forth onto the canvas.

The next day, after the paint dried, he awoke in awe to his painting’s vibrancy and his artistic achievement. On that night before the New Year, Daly’s living room only held one of his pieces. Now, his home overflows with them.

From Aug. 26 to Sept. 17, Daly’s collection brought vivid color to his exhibition at the United Irish Cultural Center. In the St. Francis Room, Daly’s works – numbering more than 180 – fully covered the walls of the space while bursting with captivating depth and variety. On the floor, Daly’s abstract art pieces become structured into raised, five-foot-tall towers that drew in viewers to stroll around the four sides of the installation. Visitors immersed themselves further into the experience as they stopped to study each dot and splatter strewn throughout into his work.

For Daly, every step of his artistic process and finished product exceeds his expectations.

“Because I have no experience of art or anything to do with art, everything is a surprise,” he said as he reexamined bits of blue paint dashed across a burnt-orange-colored base layer. He often exchanges traditional brushstroke techniques for the dynamic patterns made with credit cards and builds thick texture with his acrylic paint.

A self-proclaimed “hippie,” his art flourishes in striking color and ranges from drippy, abstract renditions of the Golden Gate Bridge to an array of precisely painted symbols representing his life. As Daly delved deeper into his gravitation towards art, he hoped viewers would seek personal exploration within his pieces.

“Recently, I have a lot of hidden stuff in paintings and it’s up to people to find,” he said. “The whole idea is that once somebody discovers something in the painting, they start looking at things in greater detail. It’s a case of self-discovery.”

In a portrait canvas titled Waldo, drizzled black and white acrylic paint string throughout one another to form a tangled yet stark image. Tucked in between the mingling stripes of the painting scatter several red dots waiting for an observer’s careful eye. Daly, watching as people point and count the masked dots, calls his interactive artworks including Waldo and the act of searching for hidden aspects in his pieces as “eye candy.”

“Once you get a little piece, you want more and then you just keep looking and looking,” he explained. “I love the paintings you can always follow. You can almost fall in and work your way up through the paintings.”

Liam Reidy, president of the United Irish Cultural Center, engaged in a new type of discovery through art when he found out that Daly, his friend of 20 years, created paintings. As Daly found space in the construction industry and later the art world, Reidy noted that community members were similarly impressed to learn about his friend’s capabilities.

“Some people were very pleasantly surprised to know (Daly) as a tradesman and working in construction, and then not knowing anything about his interest in art,” Reidy said. “I just couldn’t believe it myself when I saw it.”

Reidy, who welcomed partnerships with local creatives and organizations, invited Daly to exhibit his works in the Cultural Center.

“It’s just a new perspective for people and we’re delighted to showcase his skills, talents and interests,” said Reidy, recognizing Daly’s contributions to the celebration of Irish arts.

Daly also developed a shared appreciation for art with his niece Avital Daly. Avital, who knew him as her “wacky Uncle Jerry,” reflected back to her childhood and spotted ways in which her uncle’s character overflowed into his artistic style.

“One of his priorities was making sure that we got to live in our childhood as long as we wanted. At the same time he also ensured that if we wanted to have a serious or meaningful conversation, he made himself available,” she reminisced. “His dichotomous personality, devilish yet supportive, can be seen so clearly within his art. There are hundreds of paintings with a variety of playful, colorful, curious work that juxtaposes with his serious, more muted art in such a thought-provoking way.”

Avital finds that Jeremiah’s art reflects pieces of himself; turning to a painting titled Me, she unravels the abstract variety of colors interwoven into a complex harmony.

After he finishes a piece, Daly and Avital would stand at the face of the painting while describing to her the memories and emotions that emerged over the hours of its creation.

“His work is sort of psychedelic in that way; they grab your attention and hold on to it. What amazed me is how often something that seemed so nonpictorial could convey the same image,” she mentioned of her uncle’s art and being lost in reflection with him.

Later in the process, she and Daly would craft a title based on their visions and perceptions.

“Because Jerry is self-taught, there is no other art quite like his and it is an honor and a privilege to know his work so personally,” she added.

Displaying features of his life in his exhibition, Jeremiah Daly always calls visitors to walk across the room and look at his art from different angles, just as he did on that New Year’s Day.

“I have a head full of ideas,” said Daly. “I go to work and I love to see the end result. It’s satisfying, turning around and looking at what I’ve created.”