Category Archives: workshop

Kilkenny Catwalk Poster

In the spring of 2021 I ran a number of papercutting workshops on Zoom, in preparation for painting ‘the Age Friendly Cat’. Wonderful Kilkenny-themed work was made by workshop participants Eimear Burke, Mary Colclough, Bryan Culley, Janice Culley, Joan Fogarty and Mari O’Shea. As a memento, I designed an A3 poster that includes most of the papercuts made by them, showing much more of their detail than the cat does. High quality digital prints by Modern Printers. The Kilkenny Catwalk trail of 21 sculptures continues until Easter 2022. ‘The Age Friendly Cat’ can still be found in McDonagh Junction’s square. Visit www.kilkennycatwalk.ie to find out more.

Traveller Pride Week 2021

Today is the last day of Traveller Pride Week 2021. On Tuesday Hannah McCormick and I facilitated papercutting workshops in after school clubs in O’Loughlin Court and Millennium Court in Kilkenny. I designed an A3 poster based on the work made by the children and on Friday they all received a printed copy.

Kilkenny Catwalk 2021

Kilkenny Catwalk is a trail of 21 sculptures painted by local artists. The 5ft fibreglass resin model is based on Pangur Bán, a character from Cartoon Saloon’s first feature animation ‘The Secret of Kells’. The project is a partnership between Kilkenny Civic Trust and Kilkenny County Council. The trail will be launched on 10 October 2021 and remain in place until Easter 2022. The trail is designed to immerse people in Kilkenny’s rich heritage while at the same time supporting the Keep Well Campaign. At the conclusion of the project, all artwork will be auctioned to raise funds for the St Mary’s Almshouses refurbishment project.
I painted the Age Friendly Cat following a series of online workshops promoted by the Older Peoples Council. Through the medium of papercutting, participants explored positive and negative space, colour, pattern and all things Kilkenny. The rich collection of papercuts that developed over a couple of months, became an integral part of the cat design. Early on, one of the workshop participants proposed that the Age Friendly Cat should be a celebration of creativity in older age. Big thanks to the workshop participants: Eimear Burke, Mary Colclough, Bryan Culley, Janice Culley, Joan Fogarty and Mari O’Shea.

Artists Talk and Workshop

Papercut Installation, Other Dimensions, Luan Gallery, Athlone, photo: © Brain Cregan, 2019

Ask the Artists with exhibiting artists Laura Angell, Fiona Mulholland and Paul Bokslag, Wednesday 29 May at 6pm, facilitated by Joanne Laws, critical writer and editor. Papercutting Workshop with Paul Bokslag, Wednesday 29 May 3-5pm, as part of Other Dimensions, Luan Gallery, Athlone, Co. Westmeath. Exhibtion continuous until 9 June 2019.

Medieval Mile Museum

This new papercut installation is on view at the Medieval Mile Museum in Kilkenny City over the holidays.
The two central pieces were created by a wonderful and hardworking group of participants in workshops in the museum during the month of November. The patterns used are inspired by Blackletter – a script used throughout Europe in the medieval period. This script appears in the civic documents on display and also on the stone funeral monuments found throughout the museum and graveyard.
The two outside pieces were made by the Open Circle Community Arts Collective in 2017 and were part of a bigger installation at the Goods Shed, MacDonagh Junction, Kilkenny.
A big thank you to everyone who contributed to the installation, including Kilkenny Civic Trust, Siobhan O’Brien of Kilkenny Carlow Educational Training Board who supported the November workshops, Grace, Alice and all the staff at Medieval Mile Museum and Sheila Jordan of Open Circle.
A special thanks to all who gave their time and creativity to work on these pieces: Ita Bourke, Sophie Butler, Cate Cassin, Carmen Del Poza, Helen Dobson, Aoife Doherty, Fidealis Doherty, Polly Donnellan, Catherine Duff, Fiona Eastwood, Grace Fegan, Anne Marie Fitzgerald, Claire Fitzpatrick, Ann Marie Gray, Claire Griffin, Aileen Kavanagh, Enya Kennedy, Dominika Mlynarska, Lorraine Murphy, Sandra Murphy, Brenda Murtagh, Alice Norwood, Alison O’Flynn, Lisselott Olofsson, Siobhán Pullen, Simone Quinn, Ciara B Stapleton, Fiona Wallace and Zoe Young.

Bring Your Own Chair

As part of Bring Your Own Chair, I visited primary schools in twelve towns to deliver papercutting workshops to over 900 children. They created ‘Town Motifs’ based on the nature, buildings and heritage of their town and I worked with all images to design 14 individual A3 sized posters, one for each school. Damn Fine Print did a beautiful risograph printing job on the posters.

Bring Your Own Chair is a portrait of twelve rural towns and villages accross counties Killkenny, Waterford and Wexford, led by visual artist Michelle Browne and produced by Workhouse Union. Towns and villages include Kilmacthomas, An Rinn, Tallow and Passage East (Waterford); Ballyhack, Taghmon, Bunclody, Courtown (Wexford); and Coon, Goresbridge, Slieverue and Kells (Kilkenny).

Bring Your Own Chair is funded by the Arts Council Ireland Making Great Art Work – Open Call Award and with further support from Create Ireland/Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme, Design & Crafts Council of Ireland, Waterford Council, Kilkenny Arts Office, County Wexford and Kilkenny LEADER Partnership.

.Obj: Digital Handmade

.Obj Digital Handmade

I am looking forward to showing a new large sculptural paper piece at the .Obj: Digital Handmade Exhibition in the National Design & Craft Gallery in Kilkenny, curated by Nora O Murchú. The exhibition will be opened on Saturday 11 August at 2pm and is presented as part of Kilkenny Arts Festival. I will also run a number of children’s wokhops on Tue 14, Wed 15 and Thu 16 August. The exhibition continues until 23 January 2019.

The Breadwinner, Butler Gallery

The Breadwinner, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny

I am delighted to be artist-in-residence in the Butler Gallery during the exhibition around Cartoon Saloon’s film the Breadwinner.

I will be in the gallery on Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-4pm until 12 July and visitors will be able to make their own cut-out designs inspired by the papercut style of the Story World in The Breadwinner. I will also run a workshop as part of National Drawing Day (Saturday 19 May 12-4pm) and children’s workshops on three Sundays: 27 May, 10 June and 24 June (5-7 years: 11am-12.30pm and 8-12 years: 2pm-3.30pm).

Open Circle Workshops

Open Circle Installation at the Goods Shed

I really enjoyed working with two wonderful groups at Open Circle Community Arts Collective over the month of November. The large scale papercuts look great and are now installed in the Goods Shed opposite MacDonagh Junction in Kilkenny until Christmas. Well done to all involved and a big thank you to Polly, Aoife, Zoe and Ken for helping to hang the work and to Sheila Jordan for organising it all. The project was supported by the Kilkenny Arts Office and the Kilkenny Carlow ETB Training Services.