A Medical Print

In June 2017, I made a print for St. Luke's Hospital as part of a Blackstack Studio exhibition at the hospital.  We had an open brief but at the end of it, after the prints were submitted, they were adjudicated by a panel from the hospital to ensure that they were suitable for the location.

After the exhibition, the prints were kept by the hospital and dispersed to various locations and mine ended up over the main reception desk.  I must go in and have a look and get a photograph in situ but for now, here's the print and the process.  I called it This Is That II and took the opportunity to produce a large scale (70 cm x 50 cm) rice monoprint with wood block additions.

 

  

Gaspard

I bought a very small printing press recently and printed a an old drypoint plate yesterday.  The smudged printing ink around the plate gave me the idea for this digital development.  Apparently this fellow is called Gaspard.  I scratched the name into the plate when I originally drew it.

Twenty Five Years Later

Twenty five years ago I worked in a textile factory laboratory and office.  In the spare time at the office, I often used to doodle.  I made one particular doodle that I particularly liked and copied it.  It remains, an A4 sheet of paper with a small doddle copied many times on it.  It is dog eared now but I'm glad I still have it. 

Recently I decided to immortalise it in print and while I was printing it I thought back to working in the office and how stifled and trapped I felt.  I would never have imagined, when drawing this doodle, that one day I would be in a print studio in Kilkenny, twenty five years later printing it.

On The Desk

Today I am mainly still messing about* with my parasite drawings

print + ballpoint pen

ink + ballpoint pen

* when I was at art college, one lecturer always told us off for saying 'messing about'.  We should say 'experimenting with'.  So of course, I always say 'messing about'.

Old Stuff # 6

An Occasional Print

Printing has become an occasion rather than something I do regularly.  I have to give myself a day, get change for the toll, then drive for a leisurely hour up the M9 past Mullinavat and Knocktopher and then find money to park the car on Horse Barracks Lane, right next to the Smithwick's brewery in the centre of Kilkenny. 

In summer I often park outside the very lovely St. Kieran's College because it is free and walk through the city and although this takes about 15 minutes, it is worth it because Kilkenny City is a wonderful place with narrow Kilkenny marble pavements and groups of tourists and hustle and bustle and charity shops to divert the footsteps, unless I'm carrying paper or heavy rollers in which case I am too tired and sweaty to be diverted until I reach the studio, put down my load, turn on the radio and begin.

This drypoint print is based upon drawings I have been making somewhat obsessively of late and is for the Blackstack Studio 2016 box set.

Blackstack Group Exhibition, The Source Arts Centre, Thurles

Bit long-winded for a post title but the show itself didn't have a name!  Here are some images from the group exhibition which is currently ongoing at The Source Arts Centre in Thurles.  The show featured works from ten of Blackstack Studio's artists and was a diverse collection of print styles, subject and mediums.  I was hoping to have time to make new prints but that didn't happen so I put some in from the Limerick Printmaker's Show. 

The show was opened by Brendan Maher, the Director of The Source and individual artists also talked about their works to the audience which I thought was a great idea.  Usually the artist is anonymous to a lot of people at openings but it is the one time they are there, and possibly dying to talk about their work to a collection of visitors.  For the visitor it makes the work more intimate and real, allows them to ask questions and possibly connect with the work which might not be possible without that background being provided.

The ten artists taking part are:  John Busher, Maeve Coulter,  Sylvia Hemingway, Andrew Kelly, Ale Mercado, Stephen Morton, Aiseling Noone, Jacqueline O'Neill, Helen Robbins and yours truly.

Aiseling Noone

Aiseling Noone

Andrew Kelly (detail)

Andrew Kelly

John Busher talking about his work

Helen Robbins talking about her work

Jacqueline O'Neill

John Busher

Stephen Morton

Stephen Morton (detail)

Stephen Morton

Sylvia Hemingway

Innumerable Subtle Creations

I did it.  My first solo print show.  (Note the 'first' in that sentence expresses the hope that there will be more to come).

It was very stressful.  For months I thought about little else, yet actually going into the studio was hard.  It made it real and opened up the possibility for disappointments, for maybe realising I am not as a good a printer in real life as I am in my head.  I struggled with visualising the concepts and ideas I had in mind for the show, but funnily enough, never doubted that the concepts were wrong.  I still think they were right and I think the prints I made expressed them well and left the ideas and the visuals open enough for future work to develop.

Statements and images from the opening night are below.  I would like to thank again Limerick Printmakers for the opportunity, Isabella Walsh and Tom for helping me put up and take down the show, Blackstack Studio in Kilkenny for tolerating rice everywhere as I worked on these prints, Ormston House for the loan of the video screen, Des McMahon for opening the show and everyone who braved the stormy Limerick night to be there.

“ ... wandering above and below, the Spirit makes for himself innumerable subtle creations¹”

(Mascaro, 1965, p. 135)

Shortly after moving to Waterford, I was in a charity shop in the small town of Kilmacthomas.  On the changing room floor I found a translation of the Upanishads; ancient Sanskrit texts, written between 800 BCE and 1400 CE, which form the basis of Hinduism and some aspects of Buddhism.  The incongruity of finding this book in so unlikely a place seemed like a contemporary version of something that might have happened in one of the stories in the book and so I bought it.

One of the key philosophies of the Upanishads is Oneness;  the deepest level of our being is the same as that of Brahman, the Absolute who creates and maintains the entire universe.   This connects us not only with the divine but also with everything else in existence from molecular to cosmic.  Separateness is an illusion which causes suffering.  The successive breaking down of the interconnectedness between ourselves and the universe we live in is having catastrophic effects upon individuals, societies, nations and the planet; reducing our humanity and estranging us from the wonder and variety of life that nourishes our spirits.  We become facsimiles of ourselves, driven this way and that, yet tethered. 

Rather than prescriptive instructions, the Upanishads present a universal message, which pertains directly to global society, that only when we are reconnected with the universe through joy, love, meditation and contemplation do we achieve liberation. 

 The works in this show consider these ideas primarily through the mediums of intaglio and monoprinting.   Referencing Indian mudras (hand gestures performed as part of Hindu and Buddhist spiritual practice) and the ornate decoration found in Indian textiles and temples, there is a meditative aspect to these works both in their creation and contemplation.  Our spirits need a slow and quiet wandering to be able to form for ourselves the subtle, simple creations that will reconnect us to each other and the world in which we live.