Collage > Collage 2011-16

From January to April 2008, I was a visiting artist-in-residence at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland. I had a studio at the college with a view of the 16th century Newtown Castle and a cottage with a view of the sea.

Large skylights in my studio made me aware of the quickly changing skies and weather: sun, hail, rain, sun, sleet, rain, sun, mist, fog, sun. The skies seemed to change every 15 minutes and so, of course, the light changed that quickly as well. I started to make small works on paper, responding rapidly to the moments of chance and accident that happen when using watercolor and collage. The odd juxtapositions that occur reflect that combination of strangeness and familiarity that were my experience of the Irish and the Burren.

As to the phrase, “ There is no “yes” or “no” in the Irish language,” I was delighted when I discovered it in my Learn to Speak Irish textbook. It seemed to illuminate for me some of the mysteries of the way English is spoken in Ireland as well as to suit the collages I was making.