Atlanta-based contemporary Irish artist Eilis Crean connects with loss and celebration

On the “City Lights” series “Speaking of Art,” local artists share insights into their influences, processes and experiences in town.

This edition features visual artist Eilis Crean. “I work in series across a range of topics, themes, subject matter, and across a range of figuration and abstraction,” Crean said. “Currently I’m working on a series of paintings that are abstractions from views and encounters from my immediate surroundings and in which I’m using a color palette strongly influenced by the artist Joseph Albers.”

In 2014, Crean took on an art project that mirrored undercover journalism, depicting essential retail workers in their working environment.