Artist Statement 

The driving force behind my current artistic practice is largely informed by the direct observation of objects and my surroundings. My creative work includes drawing, printmaking, painting and digital art. For me, observational work continues to be an essential aspect to my practice as I strive to develop a deeper consciousness to help see through habitual ways of seeing. It allows me to develop a new awareness and understanding for whatever I draw. While my images are representational, I am not primarily concerned with the attainment of realism, but rather with the varied techniques and mediums used to address various perceptual issues such the behaviour of light, colours, forms and textures. In addition to observational practice, while exploring particular concepts and subject matter, research has been and continues to be an important element to my work. I believe research allows an artist to fully interact and engage with particular concepts. When choosing a project, I tend to pick a broad theme to allow the research to flow and progress naturally. By doing this it helps widen my ability to perceive the topic and develop the artwork which often this leads into other works. This became evident during my studies at the Limerick School of Art and Design. During my final year, my studio work initially focused on women and the roles they play in society. The body of work journeyed through anicent mythology, the roles of women during the world wars, female political leaders and eventually Feminism. After completing a series of prints portraying suffragettes and feminist protests, I also began experimenting with the images in an attempt to turn them into something more, such as newspaper headlines and an installation of pickets. It is through this sort of experimentation that I saw what does and does not work, and in turn it resulted in my final piece for the degree show. It is this trial and error of techniques and mediums that is at the core of my artistic practice. With all this said, the following portfolio displays a series of work completed while I was in the Limerick School of Art and Design, along with my observational work and my recent digital art work.