Artwork by Lorraine Whelan . . .

Signal Arts Centre Residency 2021

While this seems to be an annual habit, I decided that this fourth period, would probably be my last residency in the upstairs, private studio at the Centre. Once again I was installed for ten weeks, Oct-Dec. I was generally finished all work preparations for my upcoming solo exhibition at Rathfarnham Castle in 2022, Memory Is My Homeland, so I decided that this year I would focus on my writing. However, as in past years I did a daily self-portrait in my sketchbook each morning and brought my folder of paper scraps plus some glue with the intention of making some collage cards. In addition, I took breaks away from the computer to create a number of cloth-bound books for the annual xmas craft fair at Signal.

With regard to my writing, I decided to take Anne Lamott's suggestion (in her book Bird by Bird) and write as much as I could remember from my childhood to start off a sustained idea of storytelling. As an aide memoire I brought to the studio several elementary school class photos and wrote as much as I could remember about each person in the photo. Surprisingly there were only a few faces that I could remember nothing about (the photos were from grade 2 to grade 8).

I also wrote a poem nearly every day, utilising the NaPoWriMo prompts from 2013, a year I had not participated in that project. In addition I transcribed the three recordings of my Mum talking about the revolution and civil war in the early years of 20th C Ireland. Transcribing from my dream diaries, while I am still able to read my own scrawl, was also one of my studio activities, and of course, one which is ongoing. My dreams have been both a visual and a verbal resource for me for the past 40 years." .

Image Details

  • self-portrait: As I had done in my previous residencies, a daily self portrait proved to be both a record of time and a fabulous warm-up exercise.
  • collage cards: In the summer I had decided to finally rid myself of several shelves of magazines, but before purging completely, I went through each magazine and kept colourful pages of images that I thought I might use in collage cards. Making cards for various occasions is always something that I have done and it is a boon to have a card at hand when it is needed.
  • writing: I was surprised at some of the things I remembered from growing up in the '60s in Toronto. I had many good and happy memories associated with specific classmates, but as an adult looking back at those times I could see huge disparities between privilege and poverty. What was most shocking to me was to realise such obvious bad behaviour from those in authority towards those in their "care"; some teachers seemed to actually blame and punish children for their family's poverty.
  • craft fair: I made a few A5 blank note/sketchbooks as part of my contribution to the annual xmas craft fair at Signal with the intention of having a bit of pocket money in the new year!

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.