ART REVIEW : Black-and-White Prints Leave Room for Color

Jeanne O’Connor’s black-and-white photographs dream in color. Each is printed on a transparent sheet of Kodalith that reveals passages of paint, colored pencil, felt-tipped pen and collage applied selectively to a sheet of drawing paper underneath.

In “Catherine’s Kitchen” the artist offers three reworkings of a domestic scene awash in reflections and shadows to show the changing colors and patterns of different times of day. “Paper Lanterns” is an image of droopy paper bags holding candles and resting on the plump contours of an adobe stairway. Gentle drifts of pink and blue give the scene a dreamy allure. Tinted cars parked on a street in an industrial neighborhood with improbably hued buildings clothe an untitled workaday scene with an aura of otherworldliness.

These 40-by-40-inch prints by the Bay Area photographer give dreamspace room to breathe. The newest one was shot in Maine, with almost tactile granular banks of snow in heightened white against a yellow-shadowed cut-out fence and--beyond the pocket of space between the Kodalith and the paper--a dark fringe of branches against a yellow-blue sky.

Jeanne O’Connor’s hand-painted film collages are being shown at the Susan Spiritus Gallery, 3333 Bear St. (Crystal Court, No. 330), Costa Mesa, through June 25. Gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, and noon to 5 Sundays. Admission is free. Information: (714) 549-7550.