Suzanne O'Callaghan's unabashedly sentimental new art show

The Things That We Miss is Island artist SuzanneO'Callaghan'slatest show, and although it's not quite a retrospective, it is about looking back.

• Chalk artists wanted to help break world record

• P.E.I. art event wants you to 'SEXperience' Charlottetown

O'Callaghan has been painting in her colourful, messy style for several decades and has now mounted her latest collection at The Guild.

"It was the idea of tender things, and funny things, and as I worked I started to realize I miss pretty much everything, and I don't like change at all!" O'Callaghan laughed.

One of those funny things is a painting of a recent incident at Peake's Quay in Charlottetown, where O'Callaghan spotted a little boy crying because the ice cream had fallen from his cone. As she lingered, she noticed a pigeon happily pecking at the dropped treat. She painted both, titling the first The Worst Thing That Could Have Happened and the second, with the bird, The Best Thing That Could Have Happened.

Other works deal with more serious issues. One painting called Four Units deals with teen anorexia.

Grief Couture: Letting Our Children Go shows the artist thinking about her beloved son leaving, in his graduation robes.

"I can't let go, I can't let go," she explained to CBC Radio: Mainstreet host Kerry Campbell, her voice cracking with emotion.

'Voice of my soul'

O'Callaghan said her eyesight is fading due to eyedisease, which influences her work.

"Not being able to see that well, the colour and tonality and light, speak to universal languages of love and joy and the pleasures of life," she said.

"I feel like it's the voice of my soul," said O'Callaghan, who said her passion drives her to work every day. "I feel so inspired by people."

She's currently working on a project called We Were Here, painting people in the Island arts community including musicians, actors and other visual artists. "So there's a record of who we were!" she said.

She plans to live and work in Cuba this winter, and dreams of some day teaching art to disadvantaged children in India.

The Things That We Miss is at the Guild in Charlottetown until July 26 and admission is by donation.

Listen to Mainstreet on CBC Radio from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. weekdays.

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS IP.E.I. Green Party Leader quits dentistry
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS ICharlottetown bans use of cosmetic pesticides