I am a multi-disciplinary artist from Dublin. Following a 40-year career in the graphic arts I made the switch to an arts practice in 2020. Following two years in Whitehall college (CDETB) I secured a place in TU Dublin’s fine art BA program. This contribution to the exhibition is the culmination of my participation. As a mature student I have embraced the discipline that this program requires, and this is reflective in the work that I produce. My work prior to TU was a mixture of landscapes and portraits in oil and watercolour but I have embraced minimalism as my current expression.
My work delves into issues concerning visual perception and asks the observer to question what they are seeing versus what they are looking at. The question is relevant as we are continuously bombarded with a surfeit of distraction and stimulation in today’s multi-visual and multi-perceptual environment.
Interference
I am embracing minimalism by expressing what I believe are the two basic elements of visual artwork, for surface, the line (2D) and for sculpture, the fold (3D).
My interest in moiré/interference stems from my graphic arts career where moiré was an aberration in the printing process whereas it is a phenomenon to be embraced here. In previous works I was exploring interference patterns that occur when lines are offset to create moiré patterns. In my research I discovered that the lines did not need to offset to create a visual pattern and that the combination of lines and folds achieved a similar visual.
Those outputs led to these current ideations which are simple elements that create a visual tension in the observer. The works are hand inked lines using India ink, dip/calligraphy pens and a 1.5-meter edge. It is an exacting process requiring concentration and a meditative state to create the patterns.
