New platform!
Hi! Here we are on Substack, and you might be wondering why. Well, several reasons, one my readership is growing and I want to be able to still offer this for free. Secondly, I am starting to see that writing is an important component to my practice and Substack will give me a platform to explore this, as well as build a community with other people authoring things.
Next, this bimonthly newsletter will always be free, but I am going to offer a subscription-based option that will come out monthly, with smatterings of other content.
If you upgrade your subscription you will be support experimentation and exploration of writing as a compliment to my painting practice (details on extras when you click below). I would be grateful if you have the financial means to do so, but I am very appreciative of you being here every other month, reading what I send you. I also love the comments I receive on what I’ve written, and the joy of Substack is there is more room for readership engagement, and a sense of community. (Yes, there is a poll at the bottom of this newsletter!)
Studio News
When Worlds Collide is now on view! I am so very proud of this work and excited with all the press it is getting
I have three pieces in A Matter of Time a group exhibition curated by Dawn Williams at the Crawford Gallery in Cork, the show highlights artists who use time as a recurring theme in their work. The show, opens tonight 5:30pm and if you are in Cork city feel free to drop in!
Lastly, I have recently added a shop to my website!
ie explains
In late December as the works for When Worlds Collide started to wind their way to completion I made a google doc with notes on each painting. I sent this to Anna, the curator at the Butler as means for her to learn more about the work. When it came time to hang the show she suggested we place the text next to the paintings. I was surprised but also excited about this addition, so we went for it. In a way it clarified something for me in how important a narrative (true or false!) is for my work, and that writing is starting to creep into what I do more than ever.
The ‘ie explains’ section of the newsletter has always felt extremely self-indulgent, but that’s a clue it is 100% the right thing for me to do creatively. So here I am, back at it in ‘ie explains’ writing about a painting of hope. Hope is a notion I am highly skeptical of, but am having to lean into as life’s waves seem to be crashing against me and I am waiting to feel the calm and ease I know could come tomorrow.
One for the future, Oil on linen panel, 35x45cm, 2024
A blank painting really. I think it will either feel spare or result in me adding loads of objects to signify activity, which would result in a chaotic painting, something I am not after. This is a painting of Arvid’s (and hopefully soon to be our) kitchen, but a future version as Arvid is slowly by hand remodeling it. I have absolutely no idea if this is even close to correct on how it will look in the end, and have come to terms with the fact that it's probably very wrong. A painting for the future full of light and painted with hope.
Titled One for the future as it was one of the final paintings I made for this exhibition, and the only one with the future in mind rather than the past. The title is also a play on the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint’s survey show at the Guggenheim Paintings for the Future where her series The Paintings for the Temple were featured, I was fortunate enough to see this exhibition in 2018.
Recs
Read: The Eighth House By Linda Segtnan — will be out this spring in English, I was fortunate enough to read a pre release copy. In a way it highlights the fears of females, and how easily one can be haunted in obsession. But really this was a book that got me out of a reading rut so I am grateful for it.
Watch: Good Grief — On Netflix for me it was a visual mirror of a person existing in the world but feeling inside their own glass jar trying to move through the world.
Listen: Huberman Lab: tools to reduce and manage pain — Sent to me by my uncle this was incredibly informative on what pain is and how to navigate it. It is long, but I could listen to it again and again.
Look: Instagram Account — August Noon I have followed this account for a few years and have been featured a few times. Simply a lovely curation of paintings that brings calm when scrolling.
Eat — For the last few months I have become obsessed with the Lindt mixed seeds chocolate bar. Ive always thought the thickness of a Lindt bar is perfect, and these seeds add welcomed crunch, and the added bonus of popped quinoa, giving me the excuse that I’m also getting some extra protein.
Always glad to be here and read about what’s going on for you. As always, I’m dreaming of ie bakes.