Artwork by Lorraine Whelan . . .
Good Morning/Maidin Mhaigh/Buenos Dias, 2016
These books are bound using Japanese stab-binding. The first and last pages contain a lino-print of text in one of three languages and there are 3 "breakfast" images per book. The simple ritual of a polite greeting and query takes on an existential significance. One of the Irish language books was purchased for the NIVAL (National Irish Visual Arts Library) collection from the Dublin Art Book Fair in 2016.
- three books of lino prints, each in an edition of 10
- corrugated cardboard covers, 15 cm x 19 cm
- handbound, 12-strand cotton thread
- endpapers and edition page, acid-free rag paper
- lino prints on heavyweight cold-pressed acid-free Strathmore
watercolour paper, 300 g/m2; image/text size 6.2 cm x 7.5 cm
Artist Statement / Bio
I was born in Toronto, Canada into a large Irish immigrant family. Shortly after obtaining my primary degree in 1986, I moved to Ireland to where my parents and half my siblings had already returned.
My writing (poetry, art criticism & commentary, fiction, non-fiction) has been published in Ireland, Canada, USA, Luxembourg & online.
I have exhibited my artwork throughout Ireland in both solo and group exhibitions and have exhibited in group exhibitions in France, China and Canada. I have participated in artist residencies and symposia and my work is included in private (US, Canada, Australia, UK & Belgium) and in public/corporate collections (Microsoft WPGI, OPW, HSE, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Europol & IBM).
For over 30 years I have created bodies of work that are inspired and challenged by my environment and circumstances, which are regularly in flux. The study and analysis of dreams plays a large part in much of my work and the development of dream imagery informs the iconography used in both visual and verbal work.
I have worked on projects in response to a specific brief, site, concept, or combination of these. I am fascinated with the immediacy of temporary work yet equally interested in archives and permanence. While I consider myself primarily a painter, I love to experience and experiment with any manner of media. I freely use any media to suit an idea, which is the paramount consideration.
I believe that it is through the expression of individual responses to life circumstances that wider truths can be discovered and understood.
I am an artist. I am here. I remember. I draw. I write. I tell stories.