New work/Kicking the bucket again exhibition

So over the past few month I have been attending meetings every two weeks as part of the Kicking the Bucket program sponsored by Milford Hospice.
Although the meetings are surrounded by the topic of death, dying and all the shite that goes with that, the whole experience was most enjoyable. I loved meeting up with a lovely group of people, having discussions and doing arty party activities.
The result of our group meetings was an exhibition based on the topics discussed. The group Kicking the Bucket and the exhibition was organised and founded by Katie Verling and Sinead Dinneen, two lovely ladies who have had been through the loop themselves.
The exhibition was held in Limerick City Gallery of Art, a great opportunity and honour as an artist. Artists and non-artists putting their heart and soul into a small body of work to be exhibited for ten days at LCGA for the public to view.
The whole process has been very satisfactory, below are photos of the new work I created for the exhibition, plus photos from the opening night.

Artists Statement

Reliquaries for the Soul, (small sculptures/vessels)

Vessel 1, Clay, wire, broken mirror, paint

Vessel 2, Clay, broken mirror, sinew, thread, gold paint

Vessel 3, Clay, thread, gold leaf, and gold paint

Vessel 4, gold leaf, egg shell, clay, burnt wood

Print Installation

Gold Mono-prints with embossed text

The whole installation with embossed text alternating from 'Soul' to 'Heaven' with an original black-out poem of mine embossed on the centre page.

'Sometimes my Soul Feels Heavenly Bound' Original black-out poem

Some print variables for sale as well. Contact me for more info.

I also had some older work on display, Changeling and two photos with text

Installation shots of my work in Limerick City Gallery

My grandparents came to the opening

Some photos of the work by various participants of the group, some with an art background, some without

Artist Clea Van der Grin opening the exhibition, her work was also showing alongside ours in the main gallery.

Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell speaking at the opening about the exhibition and the release of there book, infinite Lives.

This lady sung at the opening with a newly invented instrument called 'The Merlin'

 

Headstuff-Featured Artist article

A few months ago I was asked by Ruth Connolly, art writer from the web-site Headstuff to do an interview on my photographic series, 'Colour Me Happy.'

Here is what I wrote, plus a few photos from the series; For the full body of work please click here, to see the full article on Headstuff please click here.

'I always carry a 35mm automatic camera with me whenever I leave the house, either going into town or on various trips. It is loaded with 35mm colour film. I usually use black and white film when I am working on projects but wanted to carry a colour camera (I also sometimes carry a small camera with black and white film as well, so I have a colour camera and a black and white camera!), with me as a form of sketchbook.

I prefer film over digital as it prevents me from over clicking, I have to step back and think about what I am doing and what I take as I only have a few shots to work with at a time. Film is a good way to focus and observe your subjects, it leaves a lot to chance and there is a real excitement as well as disappointment when the film is finally developed. 

I use the colour photos as an exploration of my everyday, to acknowledge whatever catches my eye, making me more in-tuned with my surroundings and myself as an artist.

The photos are of my world and life of the past 7 years or so, it is a small world mostly taken at home, by the sea, wandering in graveyards or fields and occasionally visiting family in America; little liminal experiences.

It is usually colour or shapes that catch my eye; Some of the photos are blurred, usually from me being to close to an object, the camera has an automatic focus so I am unaware of the problem till the film is developed, but this is ok, it is about being in the moment, a small memory captured through light on a piece of film, memory isn't always clear, sometimes blurred.

It wasn't until I started to put the photos together, creating a photo essay that I realised that they formed a sort of autobiography of my life these past few years and weren't just random shots. Showing my anxieties, fears and worries, the battles I have with religion, love, life, family and home.

I will continue with this observations taking my little camera with me wherever I go and hopefully keep adding to the series, capturing the beauty of my everyday.'

Abridged Zero - 47: A Many Splintered Thing

I had a poem published in Abridged Zero Magazine which accompanied an exhibition at Void Gallery in Derry, 'A Many Splintered Thing.' The below poem, which is untitled accompanies a photo by Irena Popova from her series Anfisa's Family.

'I can deal with none of this,

Yet….If I can bear it a while longer,

I will hear her soul.'

Needles to say I am very excited about this opportunity. I found the paragraph for the open call wonderful and a delight to be able to respond to. Here it is below:

Love is a Many Splintered Thing – Andrew Eldritch

“while everywhere love is breathing draftily” – Frank O’Hara

'Our sense of love is conjured vaguely in our sleep, without sound or alphabet, by the mixing of smells of our particular detergent, of breakfast crumbs, of tired bodies in tired bedsheets. Its potent moments are dissolved into our days and disseminated among the many, becoming the domestic dust that falls and fills the little crevices of our existence. The constant expansion of time drags against the climactic instants of love and their fullness. We are not accustomed to complete fullness, and do not have the capacity to sustain it. Love therefore must splinter into our long quotidian days. We must fluctuate lest we are to die from love and its devastating totality. We must choose to erupt with its moments, or to survive by allowing it to splinter and fray like a twisting rope. You will find it in your pocket like lint – it is the gunk in the cracks between the things we are sure of seeing, the gunk between the senses. You could call it love when you find yourself picking parts of another person from your skin, particles that have been wedged into your pores like soil or grime under your fingernails. It is the still morning light that bleaches our senses so we can really see the pimpled mossy stuff of love in its stark mundanity. Love is the nesting of a self within another, when duality glints into oneness. It is a closing in. We move closer and closer to the truth, and the inevitable falsities which become the essential truths. We move closer and closer until we cannot see wholes but only splintering fragments.'

To view the PDF online version please click here

Abridged were kind enough to send me two copies of the magazine, one for me and one to share! But the covers are different, how ever shall I choose!