May 2021
Delighted to be back showing my paintings on Merrion Square East from this Sunday. Thanks to all who purchased from me and kept me going with commissions during the lockdown.
Time out sort of suited me. I played around with sculptures for the first month or two. I am a collector of interesting off- cuts and throw-a-way objects. I then just gardened and painted. I find one feeds the other for me.
I have been developing work towards holding an Exhibition later this year and I was delighted Fingal County Council have awarded me a bursary in this regard. The ideas and thoughts around the exhibition have unconsciously seeped into all my work and especially the paintings.
August 2021
Since my last post I was so happy to be part of both the CRC and ARC art auctions as they were unable to fund raise this year. Thank you to all the people who both bid on my paintings and bought. These charities do such fantastic work and are are close to my heart. You made it possible to help a lot of people in trouble. Thank you.
I have the opportunity to be part of the opening of a sensory garden which is being developed presently in a Dublin City Centre school. I have been working on garden sculptures in between painting. I find they slow me down and as I work they seem to open up a space in me to flow into painting. I really like being a small part of this project as I find gardening so therapeutic for myself and bringing the wonder of nature into city spaces can only brighten every school day!.
In the meantime I am still working on both paintings and sculptures for an exhibition.
Thank you to all who bought, commissioned or contacted me all year. You kept me connected and creative.
November 2021 Thank you to Fingal Arts who awarded me three hours with Eamonn Maxwell, a curator. He was very personable and helpful. He visited me for the last hour and I found this very beneficial as to how I could proceed with the personal exhibition I have been working on for the last year. I do so much work and then get overwhelmed!! It was great to have a considered and honest opinion on the direction I could proceed now. This has opened up a lot of new possibilities for me. The Sensory Garden Sculptures I was working on had to be postponed until January as the school was concentrating on all the Covid procedures. Around this time we got confirmation that ArtSource was definitely going to proceed. I am free now to use some of the paintings for this exhibition and the thoughts behind them have been the inspiration for my new work. It all has been a very creative time for me.
I am at Stand J5 so hope to see you there. Thank you again to all the people who kept in touch with me throughout the year and also those who kindly purchased.
November 2021. Following is the inspiration for my exhibition at Art Source in the RDS from 11th to 14th of November.
When Time Stood Still –
Gardened
Lifted plants that were garden bound….
Settled in position forever.
Did not want change but needed,
No pressure, no thoughts,
Just the satisfaction of brown earth,
Cleared out of fuss… waiting for Spring.
The groundedness of just being.
Through this vacant silence came….
The undiagnosed worry.
The loneliness of waiting to know….
Just not ready to know yet.
Paintings came unannounced
Full of nothing and everything
Paintings that held the sadness….
The slow dawning of what should have been
The paintings that say what you can’t
Paintings that hold language when words won’t come
‘Remember the mornings… you already made it through…
For in this life you will find winding paths….You will also find when you get to the river the unknowns did not keep you from knowing peace’
Morgan Harpernich (autistic artist and poet)
August 18th 2022
It is a while since I posted. I would like first of all to thank Fingal Arts for a bursary award last year and this year towards the development of the work ‘Between Worlds’. I am grateful for both the financial help but also the encouragement it provided when I might have given up
This exhibition has been an emotional journey for me. Starting off I thought it was to raise awareness around the distress brain injury or stroke can cause to families and homelife.
Our eldest son was knocked down by a car at ten years old. He was on life support for three days and in a coma for two weeks. Life as we knew it totally changed forever.
He recovered slowly and very well both socially and academically. We just muddled through it at the time. Each of us was affected differently and had a part in his recovery. There is no right or wrong way of dealing with the daily distress that goes with the slow healing from head injury
I thought we had managed alright but the diagnosis of his little boy with non-verbal autism at the start of Covid triggered for me the isolation, loneliness and sometimes overwhelming, paralyzing fear that accompanies medical expertise.
Working through this exhibition has compelled me to revisit and understand and know we couldn’t have done any better at the time. Working through trauma is an uncharted part of life. No one gets through it without support. We need to talk. We need to share.
We are all caretakers of each other.
I am giving a painting for raffle and dividing the money between Headway/Acquired Brain Injury Ireland and Non-Verbal Autism.
I am very grateful ‘Headway’ are going to open the exhibition for me.
These Organisitations provide such valuable day to day suport for families in trouble.
Exhibition Details
Copper House Gallery,
St Kevin’s Cottages,
Dublin 8
Opening 8th September 5.00pm to 9.00 pm
9th to 13th September 10.00 to 4.00 pm
Hope to see you there.
Liz