giddy goating around Dublin and getting reloaded visually ......

the view out of the half door at Monster truck gallery and studios yesterday , sun ,sun,sun
maurice sendak illustration in book on a studio tableelf owl in book in oxfam shop ....I think I like elf owls ,never seen these before...too cute fantastical vintage childrens book illustration on studio wall of (soft blonde moustache collective ..hi girls ) I flipping wish I had this art forum, I love this Delphine Courtillot image (in a studio at monster truck)
I had a fab day in the big city yesterday.
We had fun , a nosey around the sweetest monster truck studios (thanks Pete x), lunch of middle eastern food, wonderful treasures to look at the Chester Beatty Library....ancient Persian manuscripts ....Hindi fairytales,imaginary portraits (imagine how exciting that was),chameleon pheasants,with feathers of several lustrious changing colours........tiny books,
and then a quick look in oxfam,the purchase of a vintage french Ricard bottle for 50cents and a tiny old frame (for my tiny old frame collection....all being collected up for my new project)....., a glance at obcurity in the many books in this great charity shop.
Its so exciting being in the city for such a short time , when you know that you have to whizz around fairly rapidly.
Still more art exhibitions , great inspiration , thanks to the super exciting Paki Smith show (the red thread @ Douglas Hyde Gallery)......... a best friend ,even more giddy with excitement than me,the purchase of tiny china blue heart shaped buttons and the gift of an embroidered deer.
I can safely say we are blessed.

the thrill of it ...

film still
the lady who carried her house on her back
1min 40 second looped film
...its so fabulous to think about the fact that even though I have never been to Halifax in Yorkshire... my little film
the lady who carried her house on her back
has !
The temporary art space show finishs up this weekend ,and my film can take a rest from looping endlessely around and around and around (till its next adventure)
I am at the moment trying to learn how to stream it on to my blog....then you can all see it.

all is so well.........

always
drawing that was in the syntheastwood show homemade
ink and acrylic on found envelope
me this morning on a love cycle
the ring, the ring,THE RING
the once beloved rose jug
the light encircled cottage that we discovered this morning
...OMG ! .....it arrived, the ring(s), just when I returned from a glorious cycle which had led us down a path we had never gone down.....and there at the end was the sweetest old cottage , with large flagstones in front on the ground ,the sun encircling it and yet..........the life all gone.
It must have lain asleep for nearly 100 years,inside was the frail remains of a rose decorated jug.
Swallows are EVERYWHERE as we speak, they followed us swooping around as we cycled, creating big loops of magic.
Victoria Elisabeth, the maker of said unicorn rings enclosed two little random fortunes she had made for me aswell ! ....(thanks victoria x)
Pick a day this week to be
a day for mistakes,and go
have fun.

Sit outside and watch the
stars:they're just waiting
to be wished on.
Take a look at her etsy shop,just click on this post title.

unicorn rings,sea potatoes,lost paintings,grafitti and the iminent arrival of a 1970;s lemon squeezer

.......oh you know , ho hum, summers drawing to a close ,life seems between two worlds at the moment , one still here and the next ,not yet started.
It feels precious , a week left until an inforced school regime makes one less "free", but still and all the light is so magical ,look at it outlining the clouds.....just this very moment.
I am looking forward to giving my studio one almighty sort out and make some space in it for serious drawing activity.
I cant BELIEVE that I painted over this image (a self portrait).
Retrieving\resurecting it feels like my starting point into some new work , when I am able.(Lucky that I had photographed it.)
I remember a painting tutor saying not to be afraid of loosing images, that sometimes you have to loose them to find the work again.
I am SO excited about getting my unicorn rings. One is for a friend (shush....she doesnt know about it)......unicorns , hmmmmmmm dont cha just love "em !
The sea potatoes are from da hols, I always feel they are the sign.....it is very hard to find them whole ,as they are so delicate and when I do , well , it feels very lucky .This time a friend and my eldest daughter gave me ones they'd found and I felt like the cat that got the cream .
Oh , the lemon squeezer ....well there is this super cool site click on the above post title unicorn rings etc....to get to wintersmoon.
I imagine it is from the 1970;s ,I adore the drawing on it , talk about arbritary.
Yeah....trees, swirly horses,um...man on horse,hare,quail,fox,flowers..........I LIKE.
I hope that all my millions of readers (well ,maybe my few lovelies)........ enjoy good luck with all your late summer\early autumn doings....me well I'll be fine.............just as soon as the lemon squeezer and the unicorn ring arrive.

...some drawings that slipped the net

its all so very wonderful
ink on paper
2009
puppet girl
ink and acrylic on lace on gesso box
2009
...these were part of my degree show but I dont think I have shown them here.

you have to leave so you can return and on and on it goes........

princess in the nativity set at the graveyard of an industrial school Letterfrack .Connemara
magic flowers on Renvyle beach
spoons from avoca (um , chi chi shop a bit expensive )
peter doig man floating on the sea for hours and hours and...:( coming home
....just got back yesterday from the family holidays.
At this stage it seems like an essential pilgrimage to the same spot in connemara....oh how we were tested in our love for her this year ! ......I thank god for the days that I could feel free ,swim in the sea and for the rest of the damp and very windy days , I am thankful that our camp didn't blow away and that we are all still friends .
Highlights were seeing a man diligently elegant, paddling his surf board for hours and hours straight out of a Peter Doig painting, ....the opalescent oval stones on the beach, three beaches from us, hearing the sea as we slept in the tent awning, and talking with old friends.
Now we are home and it all seems different again.....something new is about to begin......... ♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

salon show

so glad to be in this show, its an artist run project in a listed 18th century building.
The group have been awarded the space (which was originally built as a cloth hall...where hand loomed cloths were sold to the market) for just six months and have hosted many fine shows in it.
I am pleased to be included in their final one.Click on the title salon show to get to their space.

farewell for a while.....

film still drawing
ink and watercolour on receipt book

I am going off tommorow on the annual pilgrimage (family holiday) to connemara,
Its been raining incessentantly for a week, but....its okay (assumes shaky voice)
"its more than that".....we have lovely once a year friends ,the sea , the amazing light, beachcombing, reading, sleeping,dreaming....but no blog :( ...
I will be back !

my lovely market stall

the blue horse drawing nestling in with the 1970;s irish irish irish glasses (like they are from Ireland aren't they !)
last saturday ended very,very wet and this is the END of the day , me trying to dry tableclothes etc...!
this is the innerworld house that sits on top of the old wooden box that houses my self-published book of drawings....
NEWS FLASH ****I have sold 24 copies !!! yay , so um, um, thats 26 to go...........
a bit of an untidy box of drawings , someone had been looking through a little too enthusiastically !.a hat I make (also), all laid on top of my fave fabric, which is from the 1950's titled lunette by Dorothy Smith....isn.t it fantastic !
elinora,she is painted on the reverse of glass,and I dont mind if she doesnt go,I really like her,her and her butterflies !she is in the company of a lot of green stuff, lustre bird jug,irish cottage,and lovely rose tea cups.....until next week, goodbye from all the characters from one little market stall in the west of Ireland
.....now that I have space in my head to actually reassess my surroundings , things are taking on a different light.
It has been hard to balance all that I do,
(because I have needed to focus on my fine art degree, my family and my dolls (dogs !) I had to slightly abandon my market stall :(....I mean nobody really knew, because it always looked fine (but I knew , it could be better)
Now that I have finally graduated with my longed for fine art degree , I can move on ....how to integrate all the strands of my art practice ?
Well...I can see that all that I do, feeds in to each other.The important things are curating and editing my work.
I have to make a living and sell what I feel are interesting and meaningful objects ,which also give a sympathetic space to my evolving collection of drawings and artists books (one made...more on the way :)......)
So, wish me luck in this continuing journey , I know that it is not a conventional gallery setting , but I do know that my drawings are reaching people that would not normally see them and that for me ,is cool.

Coroline

I went to see this on my own in the middle of the day ! ....noone else was interested. It felt like a private screening just for me.
I must say I did enjoy the film, and was thinking about all the work that went into making it .
click on the above title coroline and you can see a video clip of the making of it ......if you are interested :)

studio love **

.....still looking all around me , going away in our cute 1970;s caravan ...daisy.. very soon.
Here are a few more images of my immediate surroundings....
Next up is a studio shot from a great film that I just saw Coroline, look at her in that beautiful blossom forest

blue horse for elisabeth

blue horse
ink and collage on paper
2006

just a bit busy right now ...new dawn is on its way xx

making up da packets of melancholia

...since before my grad show I have been sneeking these little packets into existence.
I am thrilled that my work got chosen , it certainly doesn,t feel like work,it has been a joy from start to finish.
I love the whole ethos behind monstertruck gallery , if you click on the packet in the right hand bar ,it takes you straight there ..really !
The show is housed in an antique cabinet and compises of 10 artists interpretation of the multiple,the work will be available to buy from next thursday the 16th july , when the show opens until the end of august.
All the work has been made as a fine art piece ,but in an affordable form ie. a multiple.
This is my statement:
I am interested in investigating the unknown quantities of feeling and emotive spaces. …melancholia to me means sad, forgotten, brooding and dark with nearly always a feeling from the past. Also quite often poignant and beautiful….like a barely heard piece of piano lonesomely being played in the flat above yours.
For my multiple I have compiled a collection of found objects that appeal to my continual search for meaning.
Unused vintage greetings cards, torn out pages from old books, pieces of my own work that don’t seem to fit in anywhere but have something worth keeping in them.
I wanted a jamboree bag feel to the packet, when the contents are viewed together they become more than the sum of their parts.
The attention given to otherwise insignificant moments, can award a magical, special and wondering meaning to that which may be lost forever, it is towards this space that my work is focused.
The love bit is very important ,…..always love ,because as Sappho said whatever one loves…is .

Candy says....

studio love

.....I spend all my available time in my studio,I love it in there so much...its a little cramped at the moment...... but thats it huh ! what can you do apart from take photos of the coherent spaces :)
in order now !....messy table , this is THE reality of how I work and I LOVE IT !!...God is our refuge and our strength..you can change god to good or love or whatever but I never get tired of this picture (1940's church hall sign)
my nest \sofa...its MINE do you hear me ,dogs/children etc..mine (well I dont mind sharing it sometimes)
My books , a very few of maybe 100 times this many at least....books are my lovers .
Tony O'Malley..Irish painter, unfortunately gone to a better place...I will never forget this man, I met him on Clare island many ,many years ago ,a total sweetheart and pure pixie.. it is his words that I see most days
never be swayed by anything but by your own work and vision.
The new image at the top of the blog is from my newly retrieved book ,that I came across in my parents attic.
This book, printed in 1968, has never left my imagination , it is totally mad ,the images one more scary than the next ,is it any wonder I am like I am ! ....but do you know what ? I absolutely love it ...Candy and Andy ..you still rock

thanks for sharing the love Meighan....

oh my...oh my ...
well you can be very sure that I really appreciate this mention from the hugely inspiring website .....myloveforyou.typepad.com,it is hosted by designer and curator Meighan O;Toole and I have been enjoying since I discovered it a few years back.
(click on my title at the top of this post........ "thanks for sharing the love meighan") and you will go straight on to her site.
If you are interested in the more under the radar type art , handmade aesthetic and d.i.y approach to art then you could go to no finer site ....yippee , I am honoured to be amongst some of my favourite artists xx

drawing it all together....