‘Stories, fables and tails’ at The Tipperary Excel Centre in August is my first solo show and I am very excited at the prospect of seeing ALL the pieces hang together for the very first time. It has been an exciting journey, sometimes peppered with panic and the odd low moment of frustration and doubt.
My work deals with story telling. I make big storybook pages, often involving text. I am influenced by icons and altar-panels. I work with mixed media drawings; mainly oil and varnishes, and with printmaking (both traditional and digital).
I mix drawing and digital images together as I think that a drawing can sometimes be more real and more honest than a photograph and conversely a photograph can have all of its reality removed. I am interested in the various way we make marks and how we read and interpret them.
The use of animal imagery.
Animals have always played a huge part in our myths, legends and religious beliefs. Since we have lived in caves we have used animals to tell stories, give warnings and make magic; from Red Riding Hood and her ill fated granny to Apocalyptic end times. We also use animal behavior to describe human conditions: as strong as a horse, as sick as a dog, as stubborn as a mule and no man would ever want to be called an old goat. Our ability to understand animal iconography and symbolism is as innate as our subconscious.
Waiting for the Apocalypse series 1-4
This piece when hung measures over 2 meters high by 5 meters wide. It is a combination of oil on board and digital prints.
This series is based on the acceptance off death in our lives. Ours is a routine and gentle apocalypse. The horses are waiting for their riders, the girls and their actions are repetitive, they are surface, like wallpaper. We all wait for our own personal apocalypse calmly. Mostly we ignore its inevitability.
Romantic fiction
These digital prints are A1 size.
This series looks to romantic fiction for its inspiration. Ideally this series would not be shown in a gallery space but be pasted to lamp posts, bus shelters, billboards etc. as cautionary romantic advertisements.
I wanted to push the bounds of the image until it was somewhere between drawing and photography.
On and on they went further into the forest
2m x 1.5m and 1.8m x 1.4m
Dogs are to woods what wolves are to the forest. Symbolically dogs are creatures of domestic harmony and fidelity; wolves shout unpredictability and are at their core the embodiment of physical instinct. Forests are dark and dangerous places of great beauty. We tend to emulate the environment we are exposed to.
Prints
81cm x124cm