Artwork by Lorraine Whelan . . .
Good Morning/Maidin Mhaigh/Buenos Dias
Following the death of my mother in August 2016, I channelled my grief creatively, by combining my printmaking practice with my bookbinding skills in order to create a quiet memorial to my mother.
After a number of sketches and design plans, my work began with a series of lino prints. I would bind these prints into several book editions, a different language for each edition. I chose three languages - English, Irish and Spanish - as a starting point, with the possibility that I might create future editions in other languages.
Each book contains
five small lino prints. My prints are straightforward: a mundane greeting
to start the day (good morning / maidín mhaigh / buenos dias) and its
follow up query (how are you? / conás atá tú? / ¿cómo estás?) enclosing
three simple images (an egg in egg cup, two mugs, a teapot).
These are existential books that allow me to negotiate the circumstances of overwhelming loss: coming to terms with the banality of living while facing the abyss. At the Dublin Artists Book Fair 2016 at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, NIVAL (National Irish Visual Arts Library) bought one of the Irish language books for their collection.
Image Details
- Good Morning, lino print, ink on Strathmore paper, image size 6 cm x 7.5 cm
- Maidin Mhaigh, lino print, ink on Strathmore paper, image size 6 cm x 7.5 cm
- Buenos Días, lino print, ink on Strathmore paper, image size 6 cm x 7.5 cm
- Teapot, lino print, ink on Strathmore paper, image size 6 cm x 7.5 cm
- Egg, lino print, ink on Strathmore paper, image size 6 cm x 7.5 cm
- Conás Atá Tú, lino print, ink on Strathmore paper, image size 6 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.