Pen Pal Pear Project

My work is involved in the Pen Pal Pear project at the Little Ghost Gallery in Kilkenny, opening this Friday the 6th of August to coincide with the Kilkenny Arts Festival.

This was a project where selected artists were combined in a visual pen pal partnership. We were encouraged by Anne Keenan and Mick Minogue (who run the gallery) not to do google searches, or email, or phone the other artist, and to literally post imagery to each other in order to create a piece for the eventual show.

I was placed with artist Stacey Shine, whose delicate insightful drawings dropped into my letterbox like little droplets of joy. I struggled a lot with the project as, though the materials with which we work are somewhat similar, I thought our concepts were vastly different.

It was when she sent me this image, that something began to resonate and I could see a language and dialogue with which we could begin to visually combine.

She didn't send me details of what was happening in the work. And this, for me, meant I could view it as an objective source, i.e. as a viewer, but the fact that I could respond to it, as an artist, meant that the project began to escalate. I addressed it as a young boy, smiling strangely and carrying a log. I found it curious and the children's illustrational style to it almost gave it that sumptuous play of being disturbing, which is integral to my own work.

My own work operates mostly within the tension between flattering portraiture, sincere emotion, the difficulty of depicting that through a liquid substance and to a majority, all of my source imagery originates from internet imagery. I'm interested in extremes, I'm interested in the horrific, I'm interested in the titillating nature of the eroticised image, I'm interested in genedered imagery... you would think all of these interests would make me interesting... at least my vocabulary is vast... at least I HAVE THAT.

Well, anywho, if you're INTERESTED! (yep, she uuuused it again) in seeing how we combined our work to create a finished cohesive piece - it actually only fell into place when we met up in Café Irie on Thomas Street and worked through everything we'd sent to each other - after the initial weird, oooh are you Stacey? moment... my first blind date!... the show runs until the 14th of August. (Incidentally it turns out that little boy carrying a log was a female construction worker from the second world war. Excellent!)

Here are two examples of pieces we sent to each other that may OR MAY NOT be in the show...;