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.
After months of planning, it was such a pleasure to spend last week in the handball alley in Listowel, Co. Kerry. I mentored local artists Eimear O’Connor, Erin Halpin and Michelle Quinn in working on a mural. The designs are based on small scale papercuts that were enlarged to create a colourful work of public art inspired by Junior Griffin’s poem “Memories of the Ball Alley in Listowel” and the people, sporting life and cultural traditions of Listowel and North Kerry. I am looking forward to the launch of the mural and to showing some of my own recent paintings in St. John’s Theatre and Arts Centre on Saturday. Big thanks to Aideen Wylde, curator in residence Maire Logue of St. John’s Theatre and Arts Centre and to Listowel Tidy Towns.
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.
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.
Revolve, .Obj Digital Handmade, National Design & Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, 2018
I am looking forward to talking about my work which is currently on show at the National Design & Craft Gallery in Kilkenny this Thursday 18 October at 18.30
Free Late Date Event: Meet The Makers
Join artist and designer Paul Bokslag with fellow exhibitor Marius Watz for our late date evening this Thursday. Paul will discuss his inspiration and processes involved in creating his Revolve paper installation. Marius will discuss his site-specific wall drawings and how he uses visual abstraction through generative software. This event is part of our .OBJ exhibition education and outreach programme at the National Design and Craft Gallery. The exhibition is curated by Nora O’Murchu.
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.
Butterslip, Kilkenny
A big thank you to Anne from Butterslip on the corner of Rose Inn Street and Kieran Street, for asking me to show some of my paperuts in her shop during Kilkenny Arts Festival 2018.
.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.
Collocate (to set or place together, especially side by side)
I am delighted to be showing work alongside Eoin O’Malley and Orla Callaghan at the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. The exhibtion will be officially opened bu Dominic Thorpe on Saturday 11 August at 6pm. it runs until 25 August and there will be an artists’ talk on that day at 2pm. Eoin was a recipient of a training and mentoring award supported by the Arts Council’s Arts and Disability Connect Scheme managed by Arts and Disability Ireland.
Mountshannon Arts Festival
I am delighted to be showing work and looking forward to giving a monoprinting workshop at Mountshannon Arts Festival.
Paul Bokslag 