A brand new large-scale artwork for the back wall of Dubray bookshop as part of their refurbishments on Grafton Street, Dublin.
I worked closely with the super talented team in optimise-design.com and the lovely staff of Dubray who commissioned the artwork. The piece covers the entire back wall of the new children's section in Dubray Grafton Street which wraps around the elevator opening and concealed doors. The clouds I designed were recreated in beautiful handmade wood cuts which bring the 2D piece into the real world.
This is a very special project for me. I worked with the staff in Laura Lynn, a children’s hospice in south County Dublin, to create bright and colourful designs for their interiors.
The incredible staff and building provide personalised services to children with palliative care needs, complex care needs and complex disabilities, while also providing family support services and a home to their residents where quality-of-life is paramount.
For this phase one of the project, we focused on two large walls, 9 bedroom doors and a large fish tank. The entire project was created during the Covid-19 pandemic so it was very important to create the artwork off-site and be able to install it quickly.
I designed 60 bespoke pieces that were cut from 9mm plywood. They were then all beautifully hand-painted and installed by the very talented team in Triskill Design.
Recently I was one of 12 artists selected by means of a curated, invited competition (curated by Aisling Prior) to design a large scale piece of artwork for a new building in Stanhope Street School in Dublin as part of the Per Cent for Art. I was pitching against several very talented Irish artists so I was really delighted to have my design chosen as the winner by a committee in October 2014.
The original design I submitted was a simpler concept but I wanted to recreate it with input from the students themselves so all of the characters were designed by the students in fun (and loud) workshops held in the school.
I then took the new ideas we created in the workshops and redesigned the entire illustration. I worked with the incredibly talented Triskill Design who, over the course of three months, used my design to create a gigantic, beautiful 10 x 2.5 meter mosaic to fill the main wall in the schools open plan corridor.
We also created a second 'Welcome' sign in the main foyer using animal characters to draw the viewer around the corner to the larger main piece.
The mosaic was completed and installed in April 2015.
8 new mosaics along the front of Mountrath Community college. A long time in the making! I’m so incredibly proud of these. I worked with the students and teachers in the school on various workshops and then created the designs in the first half of 2020.
Unfortunately Covid put a stop to the project for several months but the amazing team in Triskill design created the mosaics from my designs over the last year.
We wanted to created pieces that would work individually but also as a single overall artwork when viewed from afar. We also used 70% white and lighter colour tiles so that the facade would not be overloaded.
It’s hard to capture in photos just how beautiful the work that Triskill has done with these. They are really magical and HUGE when you see them IRL!
****** INFO COMING SOON! ******
Two large scale murals on gable ends of houses in Stoneybatter, Dublin. Commissioned by Dublin City Council.
I was honoured to be asked to take part in a very special exhibition in the beautiful Glucksman Gallery in Cork City along side Fatti Burke, Peter Donnelly, Roisin Hahessy, Chris Haughton, Mary Murphy and Niamh Sharkey.
The show is curated by Tadhg Crowley and Fiona Kearney.
The Glucksman commissioned seven Irish artists to respond to different themes within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Each illustrator’s design was carefully re created as beautiful large-scale murals by the talented team in the gallery.
Viewpoints explores the potent realm of children's literature as a place for young people to develop and understand their rights. The exhibition has been developed in partnership with UCC School of Law to consider the ways in which our book shelves unleash not just our imagination, but a critical understanding of self and the world.
Hopefully my piece speaks for itself but my approach was to illustrate 18 children from different countries / ethnicities to show that anyone from anywhere could end up in a boat like this as a result of war or natural disaster. I wanted to paint the sea and the sky in unusual colours as I can only imagine how terrifying and alien it must be to find yourself at sea in this situation, especially as a child. The phrase "I should not be here" was in my head the whole time while making it. I added the seagull as it's something I always notice when I see footage of a war or human disasters, the birds and animals living their lives completely oblivious to our often ridiculous self inflicted plights on our own species.
The show runs from 5 December 2019 - 15 March 2020 in The Glucksman, University College Cork, Ireland.
Photos by Clare Keogh
This project was commission by Dublin City Council with the Docklands Arts Fund. The mural is constructed on metal sheets attached to hoarding which is 120 feet in length. The hoarding was installed in May 2017 and will be in place for the next two years on Custom House Quay.
My tribute to Dubliners in Dublin’s Docklands includes 60 unique life-size portraits of people who took part in the #DrawMeDocklands Social Media campaign which was run by Dublin City Council and Business to Arts in Autumn 2016. During the campaign people were encouraged to submit portrait selfies using the hashtag #DrawMeDocklands.
Large scale illustrations for new games room in Crumlin Children's hospital, Dublin. In collaboration with Plus Architecture who designed the room. All characters are from picture book pitches that never saw the light of day so it was great to be able to give them all a home.