Artist Statement My work is inspired by a lifetime of working with animals. My bond with these creatures started in early childhood on the family farm, in Kerry. At 2 years of age we moved to New York City, returning to spend my summers on the farm, like a migrant swallow. No matter how my family tried to discourage me…growing up, I only wanted to be with the animals, the nature vs nurture. Those summers were my lifeline, they gave me the time to connect with nature. When back in the city, I craved the methodical meditation of milking by hand, of feeding calves and riding horses, the smell of freshly cut hay and big jugs of milky tea in the field. The need for that had me leaving New York and all it’s ‘comforts’ just short of my 18th birthday to attend Gurteen Agricultural College in North Tipperary, my first dream come true. The summers I spent with Uncle Tom caring, appreciating, examining, determining the faults and attributes of the individual animal has been a major factor in my awareness of them physically. I experienced every animal as its own individual and distinctive character. There are as many personality types, in animals, as there are in humans, these are the ones that remind me of my children. The cow that leads the herd, strong, capable, focused on the job in hand just like my oldest daughter, a HR manager. The one that mothers and cares for, not only her own but other calves as well, my middle daughter, the mental health nurse. The cheeky, adventurous, brave cow who checks out the strange thing in the middle of the field…poking at it, sniffing it until satisfied it isn’t worthy of any more attention, my son the adventurous intellectual. The sassy cows, the one with attitude reminds me of all three during their teenage years and were often my favourites. My time preparing horses for sales, racing and showing has given me an intimate knowledge of the animal’s bodies. The body condition and the muscle development required for each totally different. Taking rough scraggy ponies and horses, from the top of a mountain, and turning them into top-class, prize-winning show animals was a combination of those skills of examination, appreciation of the skeletal form and knowledge of muscle building. These skills were tuned even more finely in my work designing milking parlours for cow comfort. These parlours fundamentally changed cows and people’s lives through my design. These days my connection to them comes from within, my Uncle has passed and I use these skills to create my ceramics as a memory of the past and a way to share these animals with those not as fortunate as me, to live a life in the midst of simple beauty. My practice delves into the beauty in these similarities and differences of individuals. I aim to inform and enchant the viewer through the animal’s presence and personality. To help them to see and feel the magnificence of these ordinary and everyday animals that surround us….to draw attention to the human behaviours, in them, that might otherwise go unnoticed or unconnected with. My work is based on years of this personal contact; this is the only way to connect with the animal at its own level. I start by envisaging the animal, often dreaming of it and waking up to quickly do a rough sketch before going back to sleep. My research comes in many forms from the consultant magazines that still come through the door, to walking the fields, on the internet and in books but always going back to the animal for the finer details. I begin by hand-building each character individually in clay. As I work, I can feel the warmth and texture of their body under my fingertips and smell their closeness to me. Building by hand, I explore their faces in detail while considering the interaction and sense of soul-to-soul contact between them that brings the sculpture to life and to an expressive, emotive piece of art. Colour can make the breed of an animal obvious, and it can also be distracting. It is through knowing and understanding the myriad layers of the creature that I can portray the animal without colour and still have the viewer relate and know the breed. However, unglazed clay can often feel like a dead, cold stone but through the work I create it is the peace, the joy, the fun… the happy place I have with animals that is portrayed bringing with it the warmth of life. |