Behaviour and Attitudes Commission, December 2019

This year I was thrilled to be invited as the 2019 artist for the Behaviour and Attitudes/Graphic Studio Dublin Annual Commission. This collaboration between GSD and B and A has been running for more than 30 years. Each year Behaviour and Attitudes commission an artist to make a series of fine art prints which are editioned at Graphic Studio Dublin and given to B and A clients as a Christmas gift at the end of the year. I made a series of three etchings based around the theme of Shelter. The prints in the series use motifs familiar to my work - islands, mountains, dwellings. They suggest safety, shelter and containment. However these etched worlds also convey something of a sense of unease, with their dark brooding skies and shadowy waters. As part of the project Behaviour and Attitudes made a video about the process with Barry Lynch of Infocus Media, which you can see here.

The Stinging Fly Winter 2017-18

I am really excited to have one of my collage pieces on the cover of the Stinging Fly magazine. It is more of an anthology than a magazine to be fair, stretching to over 220 pages and featuring work by fifty poets and writers. The Stinging Fly celebrates its 20th birthday this year, and is an Irish publication showcasing new writers and new writing.

This issue contains work that explores different issues surrounding housing and homelessness. It makes for very compelling reading. You can buy the magazine, or indeed subscribe for a year or two at their website here: www.stingingfly.org

other worlds

Other Worlds at SO Fine Art Gallery, Dublin opens on June 29th 2017.

It features my work alongside artists Yoko Akino, Clare Henderson and Aoife Scott.

I have really enjoyed making work for the show, which is a combination of etchings and collaged etching/monoprints. The theme inside worlds was one we agreed on when we started working on the show several months ago. Much of my work is about travel, or ideas of travel and escape, so the theme for me suggested projected or imagined worlds; places we have been, or would like to have been or may never visit. The collage pieces became a world within themselves: free from the constraints of making an etching, the source material provided by the etching process provided me with motifs and imagery with which to create a realm which pays homage to all the proofs that are cast aside when making an etching. 

from islands to other seas

Putting the finishing touches on a few last pieces for my exhibition at Graphic Studio Gallery Dublin with Clare Henderson and Yoko Akino. from islands to other seas opens next Thursday October 6th and will run until October 29th. Here's a detail from one of my collage prints. Dropping it to the framer today!

from islands to other seas

I'm busy working on some printed collage constructions for my upcoming show at Graphic Studio Gallery. I will be showing works along with artists Clare Henderson and Yoko Akino. The exhibition opens on October 6th at Graphic Studio Gallery, Temple Bar, Dublin, and runs until October 29th. It's about islands and the spaces around them, and the sea. Here's some of what I think about islands!

I am interested in the paradoxical nature of  the islands in my prints – they can represent an ideal world, a perfect place on the horizon; or an exile away from the world, a confined geographical prison. The expanse of space between us becomes exaggerated – looking at an island is like looking at another world