Artwork by Lorraine Whelan . . .
Lost - Moments
Lost is a series of prints are based on drawings
made from snapshots of people and moments that are no longer in my life;
hence "lost" as they exist only in memory and I believe that memory
is purely subjective and often dubious. Absence can be due to death
or distance: many of my friends are located an ocean away and other
people who have been key to my life are no longer alive. This work,
however, is not exclusive to lost people but includes other things or
concepts - such as lost homes, lost youth or a lost country. I decided
that my paintings Moments
complemented the prints and will be exhibiting them together.
I gratefully received an Agility Award from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle
Éalaion in the autumn of 2022 to research and create the Lost
prints.
Lost - Moments will be exhibited at Pearse
Museum, Dublin in Nov'24/Dec '24/Jan '25 and at The Courthouse Arts
Centre, Tinahely, Co Wicklow in 2026. Exact dates for both these exhibitions
has yet to be decided.
Image Details
- Even on a rainy day, the bus might be on time, monoprint, ink on Japanese mulberry paper, 12.5 cm x 18.5 cm, 2023
- Log booms used to float down the Ottawa River past Parliament Hill, monoprint, ink on Japanese mulberry paper, 12.5 cm x 18.5 cm, 2023
- We used to play cowboy games in the back yard, monoprint, ink on Japanese mulberry paper, 18.5 cm x 12.5 cm, 2023
- Well, Brad, let me tell you…, monoprint, ink on Japanese mulberry paper 18.5 cm x 12.5 cm, 2023
- Although we only met a few times, they loved me and I adored them, monoprint, ink on Japanese mulberry paper, 18.5 cm x 12.5 cm, 2023
- I was born into a large immigrant family, monoprint, ink on Japanese mulberry paper, 12.5 cm x 18.5 cm, 2023
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.