Marching on dears through Marchness.

studio

 detail on my market stall today (I will be there most saturdays now), selling my hats and clothes , a mixture of handmade and upcycled and all lovely.vintage china and printed ephemera and a range of cards featuring prints from my original drawings.come and visit , its a lovely market in Galway city.

pocket of my newly made skirt

Hello there :)  if you still come here.I am finding it hard at the moment to keep up online as my work
for my upcoming solo show and life in general is keeping me extremely challenged and busy. I post more frequently here and when I am able I will call back here if I have something worth sharing. I hope all the lovely people out there who have followed my blog and been so supportive and wonderful over the years......... will understand.

February (my world within it)

remember me in love
pencil, coloured pencil and marker on antique cotton hanky

 detail of coat made for a dear friend this month

 in my studio 

 magical coat

 at my desk

1970's childs hanky and handmade dolls coat , bonnet , bag and ......purse ! (c.1930)

my treasures from a trip back to England this month

this is an old photo from our big snow of 2010

well , its still very cold and wild , but this morning I went out for a long walk with my beloved and our three dogs and on the strength of that went up town on my bike for the first time in AGES !!! gosh it felt good.
Here are some images from my world.
Just begining to get stuck in to my new work for a solo show to happen in July(details at a later date)
I will not be publishing online any of this new work, as I want it to be surprise when it is all installed together in the gallery.
I will continue to post up my world around and about the creation of it, also incidental drawings along the way !!
I would love to hear your comments and I intend to visit some of my favourite blogs and be a better commenter, like I used to be.
 ** a lovely video from a woman who has given me so so much and continues to be an inspiration and joy, thank you ms.K.B.

I felt as if my heart would fall out in front of me it was so heavy, I held it in tight.
pen, coloured pencil oil pastel and transfer letters on found linen embroidery.
Jan 2014
view here

my first post this new year , may we all be well.

hello everyone

......happy new year , or whatever you are having yourself.

Is it a continuium ? or do we really feel the need for these seasons and interludes and inbetween spaces , the old year the new year .....isn't it all the same thing really,I guess it just helps to break it down a little bit into days , weeks , months ...years.

 I am looking forward to getting back into my studio as this time of year I will not be distracted by going to the market every saturday(I am not there till mid march)

 So , now is the time to make my exhibition which is titled life is supported in mysterious ways.I am not sure if I can put any of it on here , maybe the stuff that surrounds it is okay , also updates will be on my facebook art page.It will be an installation featuring , drawings , hand made models and an animation of sorts(wish me luck , its badly needed) A lot of it is already started.

Happy dancing girl in the street so so sweet, thanks dear inspiring Lucy of Lucys Lounge for the link.
Heres a few things that make me very happy......
above 3 images 
1* my friends made me a crochet cushion (thanks Richael) and a blanket (thanks Pat) for christmas and my last weeks big birthday.I cannot stop looking and admiring them , they radiate with love for me.
2*friends are for me ,along with my close family , the glue that keeps me sane , together. This year more than most I have really felt the benefit of friends and know that I am very lucky.I spent a lovely day and night with some dear seldom seen but important friends between Christmas and the new year, this is the view from their window over to Knocknahur mountain from Rosses Point Sligo , it was cold wet and grey , but I felt safe and loved.
3*I love happy clashing colours and cheap trinkety jewels , these are some of mine , and I wear them most days , the only value they have is that they make me happy, they cost very little.

4* Leonora Carrington , the exhibition was superb, in Dublin at I.M.M.A and I was bought the catalogue as a gift , it is so amazing , I cannot bear to even peek inside (yet)

 5*my dear friend Richael , a princess in so many ways.
website / blog

 6* this is actually yesterday , not so you'd know that today ! as here in the West of Ireland we get a lot of fairly dramatic weather.Today it is dramatically cold , dark and wet.........yesterday however was truelly magical.I walked out further than normal over the bog with my 3 dogs , a whippet called Towser, a beddlington terrier Zara and their offspring my delight Maisie.We had such a lovely time , everywhere looked otherworldly in the extreme.
My middle daughter just told me that I could sink very easily in the bog , be swallowed up as there are holes that go on forever.So far I have been okay.

7* my Maisie,that is my favourite shawl,but because she is lying on it , I dont mind.

8*one of my re-made alchemy cardigans , which feature on my dear market stall. These cardigans are such a delight to me, as they make themselves , are very intuitive and people love them !! I get to use up all my scraps and collection of thrifted knitwear and the customer gets something with a sense of love and carefulness sewn into it , a recycled piece of clothing that makes sense in this crazy crazy world we are in.I am at my stall from mid march till Christmas.Contact me via email out of those times.

my visual poem part one

* my artists book Holding a Space which I made in June , I have hopes for its journey, it was accepted by jury for the Dublin Art Book Fair , in November at Temple Bar Art Galleries , that felt good.
* my altar with dear Ritvas precious Christmas card to me.
* I am going to use these found porcelaine roses somehow soon 
* my sideboard....... the drawing in the background is by my friend Denise Nestor

as the year draws to an end I pray for the courage to continue making my new work, that has taken me all year to verbalise in a literate format.NOW THAT IS DIFFICULT , it is so slow and seems to be invisable apart from  my few dear friends , this coming year I want my work to fly , fly away a little further , so I can see it from a distance, see it in another way , I want to make the work that is inside of me , whatever the acceptance or reception of it , its time has come and I have to believe this otherwise what else can I do , I can no longer keep it in.

my visual poem part two

* me looking into a glass dome of stuffed birds in Walter Sickerts painting ennui,but I am not bored , just meditating.
*I climbed into the window of a fascinating derelict house in Chapelizod village, this cat was part of a strange installation of fragments that was uncannily like something I would have put together myself.
*on St Stephens day (yesterday) a dry and bright day, me and my beloved went for a welcome cycle ride after the endless rain and gloom.
Here is a typically inventive Irish solution to the problem of a gap in the wall , fill it with a wreck of a stove , a cauldron and some ugly blocks ....whatever, whom am I to wonder.
*the outstanding highlight of my year was the freedom and inspiration I felt on the trip I made to Berlin with some friends , here am I in the appartment lost in a ** moment **

there is a bird in her heart

ink pen and acrylic on paper 2011

Grayson Perry talking candidly and inspiringly about being an artist and he also explores notions about contemporary art.He is adorable, both honest and clever and hilarious.
Treat yourself and listen to these famous B.B.C. Reith Lectures, I found them a great tonic (thanks Fee Bee for the tip xx)

December is within and without ........

me and my eldest daughter ,scaned from her film camera south bank london 2012

three images below from my studio

some visual reference points for me at this cold moment of lessening light and gathering hype of the season. I aim to stay still within the centre (lol)
went to the first ever retrospective in Ireland of surrealist painter Leonora Carrington ,it was amazing.
Watched Jean Luc Goddards film Bande à Part 1964 last week .....it is superb , watch the dance scene here , I dare you not to be feeling better after it !!
Love Marcel Dzama a long long time now he is too much, such a poppet :)

at the end AND at the begining of things .....

just wanted to make time to post some nice images from my world, on my dear ever so slightly neglected blog.
 In truth I am impatient to get drawing again , I have a huge backlog of images positively fighting with each other to get OUT THERE .....yet this is MY BUSIEST time of the year with just 4 markets left.
If you can come and support my work as an artist by visiting and buying my handmade work on view in Galway market , I would be very grateful :)and then I can settle focus and draw for whole days at a time.(bliss)
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30TH 
SATURDAY 7TH , 14TH AND 21ST DECEMBER

Doll Museum in Paris , nice images.

beautiful things around me in my studio

above are my two favourite finds at the last carboot sale

 love this plant so much its dying back now though :(

more magic shadow trees

 postcard from v&a collection , one of my most favourite museums (staffordshire pottery 1830)

I love textile artist Hermine Van Dijck beautiful eye........, her blog is a real treat for me.
Thank you to all the lovely people who I have met through my blog , I truelly love this valuable connection to like minded souls.

making meaningful connections

 my journal is my best friend.

 I love this mans stall at our monthly carboot sale. He had loads of 17th,18th and 19th century lids , he has less now that I found them.

making shadow trees(from humble bits of dried plant findings) to draw from yesterday in the precarious autumn light in my beautiful studio.

beata beatrix
still one of the most affecting paintings for me, even in this black and white book reproduction.The painting is by Gabriel Rossetti it is a memory tribute painting of his recently deceased wife elisabeth siddal (the famous ophelia model and artist and muse)
I love that he painted her transfiguration of spirit,because as you know , I like things like that.

dear margot fonteyn and her legend swan headdress, reminds me of when I made ballet headresses many years ago.

all is going well for me , I am preparing for a proposal for a show , it has taken me the best part of this year , the deeper I wish to go with my work the longer the search yet the lighter I wish it all to look and feel.
 I often think of the people that I have communicated with over the years here , it feels like I am writing just for the air , but yet I know someone is out there,even if its only me.