I grew up in an environment that nurtured creativity and compassion towards our world. My family always encouraged my creativity, and thus, my creativity was left to grow and flourish. I was encouraged to create, no matter the medium; I have a wild, untamed need to create, to make. I was raised in the Wicklow mountains, surrounded by nature, folklore, wilderness and agriculture. I have always held a deep interest and curiosity about the natural world, human nature and how things work. This curiosity is the main driving force in my work. Curiosity and a love for the natural world. My work has several threads always present; mythology, ecology, environmentalism and personal experience. Though I am a multidisciplinary artist, textiles are my primary medium. You cannot predict or control textiles the same way you can clay, they create a material lead process. I feel that I must work alongside my materials rather than simply using them as a means to an end. Additionally, I try to only use fabrics that are reclaimed, recycled or second hand to reduce my environmental impact. There is something special about picking up a broken umbrella from the side of the road or an old, torn jacket from a charity shop and transforming these items that are destined for the landfill into something considered precious. Everything deserves a chance to transform.I hope to create art out of the unwanted, and save what little I can from adding to the mountains of fabric and plastics in landfills.
