A Birdseye View is a choreographed piece as a bird, not a drone would view Athens, with precision. Honing in on the dichotomy of ancient versus modern life; the culture, the cafes, the clubs, the narrow streets with vendors selling their wares, the museums, the posh, and the basic living styles living in harmony in one city with a central sun the Acropolis. This is Athens through interpretive dance.
A huge honour to have the the Irish Ambassador of Ireland to Greece, Serbia and Albania, Iseult Fitzgerald make a visit to my show! Thank you for the generous support and making the time to visit, really appreciated your warmth and kindness.
Talking a Line for a Walk in Athens at Phoenix Gallery Athens September 8th- 17th. Massive thank you to everyone who supported throughout this summer residency and came to my opening! From all the local artists and new friends made in Athens as well as Dublin. Also a massive thank you to the Irish Greek Society for the enthusiasm and connection. The Irish Embassy in Athens for the wonderful support and promotion! To a wonderful interpretive dance performance by the ever talented Christina Paizanis! A truly magical experience despite the roller coaster of getting things off the ground - now for Part 2 next year!
Delighted to start a new adventure on a new creative Residency with the wonderful Phoenix Athens Gallery - this is a real chance to be embedded in a unique place - rich in visual and cultural ideas - new work to follow on my blog and social media - https://www.phoenixathens.org
From sketchbook ideas to ink and paper and final book cover idea. This is my everyday writing with a little more splash and dash to the title with Quink ink creates lovely tones on paper. Alway delighted to receive interest and ideas for new collaborations with publishers and agencies!
A huge thank you to all the amazing people that helped get this show together and for the wonderful support. A privilege to work with the wonderful Historian in Residence Liz Gillis who makes the past feel and look like a pop up book come alive! To Emma Edwards at Ballyroan Library, for her consistent support, organisation and kindness throughout this project. A huge thank you to Síle Coleman Senior Executive Librarian for making all this happen and supporting this collaboration throughout. It was a rare privilege to have had this opportunity to develop, learn and explore new ideas in such an ideal environment.
Local Legacies Remembered were social revolutionaries, political revolutionaries and cultural revolutionaries trailblazing women from South Dublin. The exhibition will be in Ballyroan Library until April 16 and tour South Dublin Libraries throughout the year.
A massive thank you Duffy Bookbinders // Fine Art Printed by The Copper House // Printed cut outs by DBS
Work in progress of 8 selected important women connected to South Dublin from 1921-1923 - from left top across - Mrs Margaret Pearse / Margaret Mary Pearse/ Mary Bridget Pearse. Left bottom across Ita O’Gorman and Josie Stallard. This is so interesting to learn about the stories behind each woman - the title above Local Legacies Remembered will look at political as well as cultural figures and what there influence was in the are- its a joy to work on this project and develop my work further - also a pleasure to meet and work with new people like the Ballyroan Library and Historian in Residence Liz Gills. In process of building up new work and digitally collage it together!
The Calla Lily was a designed by Cumann na mBan into a brooch to raise funds for the destitute families of the 1916 Easter Rising - especially in the States where lots of talks and fund raising started. Its a beautiful symbol of hope and strength.
The Pearse Museum- Músaem na bPiarsach - is dedicated to the memory of Patrick Pearse - Pádraic Pearse- and his brother, William. Pádraic Pearse was an educationalist and nationalist who was withy his brother executed for his part in the 1916 Rising. This is a must see for anyone interested in Irish culture and surrounded by a beautiful park area. Also housed here are stunning examples of Irish art work W.B.Yeats who was originally an illustrator in London for years before returning to Dublin and painting the world around him. Documenting many of the changes and events in Irish history at that time.
Discovering so many interesting things about South Dublin with this project- like the Swift Brook Paper Mills in Saggart that is now sadly closed. The history of this place is interesting, the paper production commenced at the mills in 1785 when John McDonnell bought a flour mill at the location and converted it for paper making. Also it was here that the paper was sourced to print the 1916 Proclamation. More interesting facts-
The mills gained fame for the excellence of their paper and employed many locals for generations before finally closing its doors in 1972- including the Famine times.
The name Swift Brook owes its origins to Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels and Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin which was connected with Saggart.
Revolution in Dublin: A talk with Decade of Centenaries Historian in Residence, Liz Gillis.
A wonderful talk, insightful and passionate story from the War of Independence to the civil War and beyond. Especially interesting was St Endas’s and the Pearce family story- this talk really gave me a clear picture of events and the people involved- many thanks to SDCC Historian in Residence, Liz Gillis.
A privilege to have access to these beautiful editions books from South Dublin Library’s archives . Looking at a wide source for inspiration books, documents and literature relating to Irish heritages. Discovered an important writer that I never heard of before called Katharine Tynan 1859 – 1931 who was a prolific and an important cultural female of this time-part of my research is to highlight or shed light on unknot or lesser heard of female characters 1921-23 from South Dublin.
https://www.sdcc.ie/en/news/decade-of-centenaries-artist-in-residence-appointed.html
Over the moon to be selected as Artist in Residence for Decade of Centenaries with South Dublin County Council- a wonderful opportunity to develop my work and importantly share the stories and history of this pivotal time 1921-23 with nationally and internationally. This project is supported by the Decade of Centenaries Programme from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Such an honour and I’m so excited to start this. I will be posting weekly blogs about the project - new ideas and discoveries as I start this process. This is also another way to document my process and reflect on things here so comments are welcomed- it would be interesting to get other perspectives on things.
The idea of illustration as a visual essay is the focus of the residency, looking at the following themes.
· The Foundation of the State (1922)
· The experiences of women from South Dublin County during the revolutionary period and their changing role in society.
· An examination of specific personalities, (including local civic leaders), events and themes from this period of significance to the history and culture of South Dublin County.
So any comment suggests on the above are very welcome. This is really illustration through research as one informs the other so its an interesting space to work in. The end result will be an illustrated book - at the moment everything is quite looses I start to gather lots of visuals, texts and learn inept about this time in Dublin.
Something new this summer with international travel tricky so I’m traveling around Ireland instead. Making some new work - site responsive illustrations with ink, found materials, rain and seawater when I’m at beaches. This is a two month project inspired by the natural beauty of seaside locations around the Burren and Cork. Exploring materials and process and discovering new ways to work that I can bring back to my studio.
Many thanks to my agency for the lovely words about my work and process, so positive and with great advice always - delighted to be featured here and share my studio pic!
Delighted to be featured in Gold Foil Magazine Junes print edition @goldfoilmag from @drawingcabaretcouture online drawing classes- fab artists selection and special interview with @lindydunbar fashion drawings. More details and full magazine on www.goldfoil.eu Happy Monday X
Delighted to be featured in Escape Magazine ONLINE with fantastic Drawing Cabaret Couture artists
Anna Carlyle, Elly Azizian, Isher Dhiman, Jacqueline Bissett, Jean Warner, Kathy Wyatt, Lindy Dunbar, Loni Mills, Loretta Tedeschi, Maksim Koloskov, Natalie Thomas, Natalie Thomas, Sunanda Docherty, Susan Challinor, Taryn Lee, Tula Parker, Vanessa Lawrence
A stunning article written by Alexandra Bejan from the Johannes Warnke online drawing class https://escapeartmagazine.com/drawing-cabaret-couture-a-drawing-experience-of-creative-freedom/
Drawing Cabaret Couture Online Drawing Experience!
This is the final packaging designs from a personal project I started recently. Again I’m always excited to see different uses for illustration in everyday things plus who dosen’t love chocolate! Another thing about this project is the importance of personal projects in developing my own work especially when its quiet and keep making and developing ideas!
This was a new discovery these beautiful flowers on the Coca trees. It would be interesting to see this image as a logo or someplace in a cafe.
Starting a new personal project packaging for chocolate! It was so interesting to start drawing the cocoa trees and these beautiful flowers were new discovery too. This is the first stage before I scan and digitally add colour- keep an eye out for the final product.
