Reflection:
If you are not active on instagram are you even an artist in this modern world?
Since my solo show ended over 3 months ago, I took a hiatus from instagram, not intentionally, but the habit of posting daily came to a natural halt. For the full month of July and during the run up to my solo in Dublin, I posted and advertised it online to build momentum and gain some traction for the opening event. Lets face it, it is always nice to share the launch with a crowd. Posting daily was also for the people who lived away and couldn't make it to the Dublin venue so they could have the chance to follow the work and its progress.
The day that I de-installed and said thanks and goodbye was pretty much the day I stopped posting. Why? Because when the steam ran out after a month of posting, I followed my gut and didn't push it.
The last three months have been filled with moments of jumping head first into a midlands lake or the ocean in the west (if you know me I am a water gal). I have also been painting in the studio, writing in libraries or in a cafe corner. I often felt like posting an update showing daily happenings but for some reason I stalled. Perhaps, subconsciously due to the time in history with all the crazy world events. I thought that posting might look like gloating about a white privileged life as an artist. And yet I like following other people's daily grind and laughter and don't find myself judging them. When I don't post, I feel guilty. I feel guilty for not honouring and nurturing my career as a creative.
Abstract questions often start to seep in.
As an artist, is it vital to post regularly on instagram? Does anyone else secretly wish it would all fizzle out so that pressure would cease to exist and we would go back to the 90's, a time of 'mixed tapes and dolly mix days'? If this happened, would that separate the 'true' artists from the ones that might just be a 'whizz' at internet marketing or are most emerging and established artists today social media gurus as well as creatively apt. I think perhaps they are, it is par for the course.
Besides, I am posting this on my website and using technological advancement and the luxury of social media to share my story.
So where did all that 'stuff' go after the show in Dublin?
'
Heavy Stuff, Light Us' was a large solo exhibition and the theme was based on the idea of 'letting go' of certain material objects that caused heaviness and trying to promote more lightness in our lives.
Did I follow my own advice? What are my feelings after the show and what is next for me?
Well the 30 plus paintings got dismantled and I had the honour of packing up and delivering many pieces that sold to people in Dublin and around the country. It is a great feeling knowing that all the show isn't going back home. As an artist, there is a genuine happiness when people give an artwork a forever home and they get to live with the colours and the marks that came from a part of my soul.
The pieces that didn't find a new home, which more often than not are the larger ones measuring 1.5 metres plus, got taken away by a man with a van and got distributed between my newly acquired studio in Longford Engage Studios. Many also go to my childhood bedroom which when I lay my head down at night snug as a bug, I am surrounded by my babies and there are plenty of them amassed through the years. They have their own layers and histories of when, where and why they were created. Some of them go to Kerry, my second home where they get stored in whatever spare space I can find. There are also pieces hanging in The Cill Rialaig Arts Centre in Ballinskelligs, a wonderful charity organisation I have been involved with for nearly a decade now.
The quartz lined rocks were escorted back to the Kingdom where they were originally taken from after they were exposed on the beach during storm Kathleen back in April '24. Although it was my plan to put them back, I am holding onto them in case the show might get a second chance somewhere else. The childhood toys that were displayed on the plinths, I have kept. It was my intention to move them along or at least attempt to let them go after the show. But I placed them back in the attic, again just in case the show gets a second wind. Also, because I listened to so many people reminisce and regret as they stared at the Fisher Price radio and the 'Fashion Wheel' toy wishing they never got rid of them. The long canvas and paper piece have been rolled back up and stored for again. The response to the show and the theme was both humbling and heartwarming. Many visitors revealed that they started to declutter and re-evaluate after gaining some inspiration from the paintings and/or words. Although the show is not in its entirety anymore, I do hope to exhibit a version of it in another suitable venue.
Finally, the words that were placed alongside the paintings are ready and waiting for me to put them in a book format. If there is one thing that I took from this exhibition, it was the strong sense of the need to complete a poetry book. Written throughout many of the 'guest book' pages are statements such as 'love the colours, please write the book!' The words happen to resonate with so many people, beyond what I could have imagined.
A few weeks after the exhibition, I stepped into a caravan with Gypsy Kathleen, a fortune teller at the Killorglin Puck Fair. As I lay my hands on the crystal ball for a reading, the first thing she said to me was that she could see books floating mid air. It was in my future to finish a novel and it must be my priority. So, with all this positive feedback and predictions, I can't ignore the inevitable.
So what is next?
Well, I am working on the 'book', many different versions. There is hope that 'Heavy Stuff, Light Us' might get to travel a bit. I think it deserves another outing as the theme is apt for present day society. It is something that many people recognise and often struggle with; letting go, feeling the push and pull towards materialism versus being more minimal. My work is always expanding and might take another trajectory over the months but it is still very much based on 'body memory'.
I have a fundraiser event at the end of November in Dublin for the aforementioned Cill Rialaig Artist Retreat. I have been fortunate to have met many Irish artists and beautiful souls through Cill Rialaig while in the gallery and this annual charity fundraiser helps sustain the well-known artist retreat. I will also be working in my new studio in Longford, I have artist residency in December at Annaghmakerrig in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and a show proposed for May 2025 in Valencia, Spain. So, although I feel that I am not 'busy', perhaps I am because this is only a snippet of my life - the creative part.
There are other facets to my life too. But I wanted to fill everyone in on where and what it is like for an artist after a show and in between these milestones. There will be more creative updates no doubt because like other artists, I have applied for a myriad of things which I have yet to hear back from, some will be 'rejections', some 'acceptances' - two sides of the same coin.
The paintings from 'Heavy Stuff, Light Us' are now displayed here on my website (see link below) along with other pieces from various exhibitions. If you are interested in a particular piece or want to get in touch about anything else, feel free to contact me. I am here, on the world wide web. I do exist despite internet silence. I am in the background constantly thinking, creating, being, and breathing. Namaste.
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