None of the Above
Images created for the None of the Above show in Arts Office, 5 Dean Street, Kilkenny in August 2016
Giclée Print. "You must be ready to burn yourself in the fire; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?" Friedrich Nietzsche
Giclée Print. "One must still have chaos within oneself, to give birth to a dancing star" Friedrich Nietzsche
Euterpe. Gouache and Indian Ink on paper.
Euterpe, the muse of music.
When I was first offered the opportunity of exhibiting in the Kilkenny Arts Office for this AKA Fringe, I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do. Even worse, I went through a short period of creative block. Then I remembered that fantastic TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert and decided that I had to do something to get my genie back.
So I started painting really large images (the larger I had ever done) of the muses to try and "get their favour" in creating something for this exhibition. In the process of creating them, I got more and more involved in charging them with as many layers of meaning as I could. I only managed to finish one of them (the other 8 muses are work in progress): the music one. Her tattoos are filled with legends of the invention of music from different cultures around the world and allegories (I leave you to discover them as that's something I look forward to when people see my work).
By the time I finished her, I already knew what I wanted to do for this exhibition.
It is thanks to her that I finally had work to show in None of the Above so it would have been very disrespectful to leave her out of it.