AN ONLINE SHOWCASE BY MTU CCAD 1ST YEAR STUDENTS
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Creating from a distance is a catalogue
Creating from a distance provides a
containing a collection of artwork
fascinating glimpse into contemporary
that exhibits the work of First year Fine
creative practice at CCAD in terms
Art and Contemporary Applied Art
of both the materials the students are
students from MTU Crawford College
working with, and conceptual ideas and
of Art and Design. Formed through
issues that are most important to them
lockdown and through a year where
during this time. This publication offers
many artists have had to adapt their
unique insights into the questions and
practice to work in alternative and
challenges required of a year marked
creative ways and often in extremely
by extended online learning, lockdowns,
difficult circumstances. This catalogue
quarantine, the demand for social
represents the students’ yearlong
justice, and economic uncertainty.
rigorous engagement with both their studio work and their documentation
Creating from a distance creates a
of work, a foundation in I.T. as it relates
sense of hope and optimism shown
to visual arts practice.
in each of the students’ art work that has been generated over the course of their first year at CCAD. Each one of the first years are a testament to all artists’ creativity in challenging times. Aoife Claffey, CCAD.
Supported by the MTU Arts Office CONNECT Le Chéile Arts Project Fund. See more CONNECT Le Chéile supported projects on arts.mtu.ie
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Adam O’Lomasney
James Clancy
Ailbhe Reilly-Tuite
Jennifer Ward
Alice Buckley Healy
Joe Bently
Aobh O’Brien
Jonathan Stack
Aron O’Connell
Karina Bergin Maher
Camilla Corti
Kathy Cronin
Caoimhe Moore
Katie Mann
Catherine O’Neill
Kayleigh Rushe
Christina Loughlin
Claire Marie Keating
Christina Flynn
Laura Henley
Clare Brennan
Maggie O’Hea
Ebon Creedon
Michaela McCann
Erina Mooney
Murrough O’Donovan
Fionn Timmins
Paulina Firek
Hannah Roberts
Siobhan O’Sullivan
Holly Halligan
Zara Foley
Isaac Juhl
Zoe Harley
Isobel McCarthy
Zoe Velthuysen
My name is Adam O’Lomasney and I am a
Clockwise L-R:
young aspiring artist from a small town in East
Peace, Ink and water on water colour paper, 100mm x 150mm, 2021.
Cork. I try to convey emotion in each piece I create, in an attempt to spark a connection with the viewer. The styles and techniques I use to produce my art pieces are constantly changing. Recently, I have been delving in Sumi-e, the traditional East Asian ink art. I attempt to produce magnificent landscapes from my own depiction of the world. I infuse reality with imagination in my artworks. Ink is my preferred medium as it can be twisted and mixed with water to create some incredible things. I personally believe that beautiful things can be created with very little, like a sheet of paper, a drop of ink and some water. This ideology shows me that beauty is everywhere , and its just a matter of searching.
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Coastal Isolation, Ink and water on sketch paper, 396mm x 294mm, 2021. Cherry Blossom, Acrylic on sketch paper, 840mm x 590mm, 2021. Tranquility, Ink and water on water colour paper, 150mm x 100mm, 2021.
I am an artist exploring a range of materials through the themes of human experience and memory. The contradictions between men and women in society have had an impact on me as genderfluid. I bring the oversexualisation of women and the high demands of masculinity into my work. I am also interested in expressing fleeting emotions and underlying thoughts through abstract mark making. Sections of my own memory have been clouded by anxiety and dissociation, I am exploring this by deconstructing and layering my art. I am inspired by the work of Toko Shinoda, Andy Goldsworthy, and other expressionist, abstract and ephemeral artists.
Clockwise L-R: The Aftermath, Photoshopped image, 2021. Collage of, Mixed media on tracing paper, Digital Collage, 2021. Untitled, Mixed media on tracing paper , 590cm x 850cm, 2021.
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I am inspired by the sea, land and nature as well as found objects. Natural things such as flowers always hold a unique type of beauty for me. I find them incredibly interesting to observe, whether it is sculpting them with wire or dipping them into plaster to preserve them. I also quite like to study their environments, as they seem to have a different type of elegance that is equally as beautiful as the flower itself can be.
Clockwise L-R: Plaster flower sculptures, Real flowers and plaster of paris mixture, 2021. Plaster flower sculptures, Real flowers and plaster of paris mixture, 2021. Plaster flower sculptures, Real flowers and plaster of paris mixture, 2021.
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I really enjoy the process of making things, whether it’s spending time building something out of wood or making darkroom prints. I love spending time creating. In my future work I would like to continue to explore analogue photography and combine it with 3D work. I like experimenting with different materials and different textures and finding ways to manipulate light to give either my photographs or 3D works different atmospheres.
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Clockwise L-R: O Tempora, O Mores, 30cmx25cm each, textiles stitched hardened with pva glue, 2021.
I was born the 7th of January 2002 in Vipiteno, a village in Italy on the border to Austria. There I grew up speaking German and Italian, it thought me that cultures can collaborate as well as clash. My family raised me openminded and embracing my creativity, so after 3 years of art school in Italy I came to Ireland to pursue my studies. Now I’m a student in Crawford College of art and design, Cork. Here I understood that I don’t have to belong anywhere specific, as well as my Art doesn’t have to be all faced in one single direction. Everything is about experimenting. I like my work to be sketchy, inspired by Egon Schiele, and I hold more than one Sketchbook at the time. They are the only work I actually keep. I prefer working on bigger formats and to work on 3D pieces for they are easier for the viewer to physically interact with. This ends in breaking them but I find art a waste if not in use for experience.
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Krampus, 29cmx17cmx15cm, clay on glass bottle, 2021. Blooming heart bust, 32cmx25cm, cast bandages, 2021. The Garbage tower, 75cmx67cmx105cm, cardboard, plastic bottle and pape, 2021.
Clockwise L-R: Uninspired O’Clock, Cardboard, acrylic paint, 20cm x 21cm, 2021. Rex, Paper, string, 20cm x 21cm, 2021. Bare Bike, Wire, wood, 30cm x 17xm, 2021.
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Art is an ancient process, a tool for communication beyond the world of words and language. Through my work I endeavour to awaken this sacred practice within myself and others. By allowing myself to be guided by natural rhythms, cycles and synchronicities, I am taken on journeys of self-discovery. My art is a vessel for exploring these discoveries and through the medium of Ceramics, Glass and Textiles I experiment and develop tactile and sensory orientated art that aims to evoke deep emotions, where catharsis is embodied and clarity is revealed.
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I have an extensive interest in portrait painting and have always made it my personal goal to capture a person’s personality. I mainly work with watercolours and experiment with layering them to create a realistic skin tone. I love the process of painting with watercolours as you have to build them up layer by layer. Many of my portraits explore my fascination with the process of ageing and dementia. I have an avid interest in shading and highlighting. Every time I paint I explore new colour combinations to create shadows for my paintings. I feel that this is evident in my still life paintings. The process of painting is my favourite part as it goes through its various changes before settling on a finished piece.
Clockwise L-R: Maeve, 29.7 x 42 cm, Acrylic, watercolour and colouring pencils, 2021. Wave of feelings, 29.7 x 42cm, Acrylic, watercolour and marker, 2020. Self-portrait in a garden, 29.7 x 42 cm, acrylic, watercolour and colouring pencils, 2021. Always moving, plaster mould, 2021.
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Erina has always been artistic since a young age as it helps her express herself due to having a speech impediment and dyslexia. She now uses art to express her feelings and emotions surrounding her mental state, sexuality, and our modern world problems. Erina is influenced by artists like Kahlo, Matisse and Hambling and wants to explore all techniques and experiments to find her style during the next four years of college. She doesn’t specialise in any particular medium as she enjoys experimenting and challenging herself.
Clockwise L-R: self-portrait, acrylic on canvas, 2021. untitled, acrylic, charcoal, and newspaper on A3, 2021.
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tube of pain, acrylic on Paper, A0, 2021.
This semester I’ve become a bit more experimental with my art. I wanted to try up skill on areas I wasn’t as strong at like life drawing and using paint as a medium. I still enjoy the more practical, physical areas in art like sculpture and carving, which I have dabbled with the last few months also. My inspiration behind painting the various singers and musicians was to brighten up the bleak student accommodation me and my housemates live in. Music is a big part of our student life. In the apartment we like to listen and play together. I get the lads to request posters of their favourite musicians so I can paint them hang them up and immerse ourselves in the music. Music plays a big role when I’m creating the work, it sets the mood which I feel comes out in the work itself. One thing I would never of considered trying out was cast making, but after we had a tutorial on it I was hooked. I really like the whole process of making the moulds and casts. I love the idea of making a series of the same thing and then varying them slightly. You can see this with a series of apples I cast with plaster, how they come from the same mould, but are carved differently when they dried. 30-31
Clockwise L-R: 3 apples, Carved cast plaster, 70 x 70 x 70 mm each, 2021.
Luke Kelly, Acrylic on cardboard, 245 x 300mm, 2021.
Jimi Hendrix, Acrylic on paper, 300mm x300mm, 2021.
3 can-dle holders, Cast plaster from empty cans and carved, 55 x 65 x 60mm, 65 x 65 x 80mm, 65 x 65 x 80mm, 2021.
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My name is Holly Halligan I am a visual artist from Cork city, currently studying as a first year in the Crawford college of Art and Design.I enjoy painting and drawing as well as experimental work such as collage, photography and video At the moment my work is centered in themes of beauty in the modern age. I am enjoying questioning language used in the beauty industry, how advertising of beauty standards can be harmful to our psyche and how our self esteem is targeted.I enjoy researching the historical and cultural contexts of this and also integrating my own personal experience as a young woman. Recently i have been enjoying branching my skills out technically and making use of new processes.I have been particularly enjoying stitch and the use of 3D in my work .I love art as it is a way to connect with other people and explore different ideas.
Clockwise L-R: Curlers, 29.5x20.5cm, Acrylic on cardboard, 2021. Flowers, 100x100cm, Acrylic on canvas, 2021. Domestos, 21x 29.7cm, Mixed media on paper, 2021. You are inherently ugly, 36x46cm, Mixed media, 2021.
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Unholy, Ugly and Gross, 18x24cm, Mixed media and stitch, 2021.
Clockwise L-R: Lamp, 2021. Lamp, 2021. Scribbles, 2021.
I am a contemporary artist who focuses on the natural world, storytelling, and fantasy. The focus of my work is to tell a story. I want to create intrigue and for people to want to know more about the subjects of my pieces. I am constantly inspired by nature, mythology, ancient history, biology, archaeology, and much more. I find that my love for ancient history also influences me and my work. I enjoy the use of loose and messy strokes using pencil, pen, and charcoals. I often use implied line and prefer to create the essence of an object or person. I love that even with a small amount of detail, someone’s imagination can often fill in blank spots in the piece. I love using traditional drawing and painting mediums as well as digital mediums. I also enjoy ceramics and feel as though they have an ancient and natural quality as the material comes from the earth and has been used for thousands of years. In my umbrellas series, I explore how the urban and natural worlds collide, the skeletal and organic qualities of inanimate objects, and how objects in the city find their places. I use tracing paper to allow light to pass through and illuminate parts of the drawings and use biro to emphasise the spindly and skeletal quality of the arms of the umbrellas. 36-37
Umbrella, 2021.
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Clockwise L-R: Crank Clay, 50cm-35cm, 2021. Blue Sunset, black emulsion on silk cloth upholstery, 50cm-35cm, 2021.
Much of my work is based off the experiences, people, or places I see every day. Using a variety of mediums, such as black and white emulsion, plaster, clay, and graphite, I portray it onto found items such as waste material like upholstery silk. I conceptually explore these ideas in a narrative manner with emphasis and meaning behind the process of experiencing the world around me. Even in a 5-kilometre radius. I love to create something physical and tangible that a viewer can get a sense of experience from. I am most interested in drawing however using materials that I can manipulate further carries through the message of experience. As I explore more areas of research, I find myself jumping from different genres and styles of art however this reflects my hunger to create and explore as much as possible and is evident in the work I have created so far.
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Blue Sunset Panel, black emulsion on silk cloth upholstery, 50cm-35cm, 2021. Land and Sea, plaster of paris, 30cm-25cm, 2021.
My project is based on navigation, navigation of energy across the country. Ever since I was a small child, I have been fascinated by the role in which pylons play in our everyday life. The way they support the transport of electricity. These systems go up and down the country. The sheer size and sturdiness of these gigantic as unsightly and ugly. I am using, wire, paper, cardboard, charcoal, ink and paint. To create my images. The artists who have an influence on my work are Maya Lin, Chiharu, Cas Holman and Agnes Martin. They used geometric shapes to create new pieces of artwork.
Clockwise L-R: Close up of a pylon, paper, paint, ink and photography, A2, 2021. warning grid, wire, paper and graph paper, A2 and A3, 2021.
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Purple Lane, Paper and chalk pastel, A3, 2021.
I’m a drawing-based artist working with other mediums. My Current work is an exploration of my subconscious and the creative impulse in a closed environment. I walk observe and record symbols. Then I work from the image to find meaning in the physical manifestation of my subconscious. I would like to explore the possibilities of the known mediums to create something new.
Clockwise L-R: RED ART, object in nature, H 18.87 W 12.57, 2021. PEAS, plaster, Mold, H 15.85 W 15.85, 2021. RED JELLY TIN, Mold in Jelly, H 15.23 W 14.75, 2021. RED CIRCLE, Photograph of an object in nature, H 11.59 W17.66, 2021.
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I am an artist who works with drawing, painting, photography and video.My process is informed by found phrases and images from my life. My work is concerned with how we navigate patriarchy and in examining gender as performance and sex as a navigation of intimacy and power.
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For me I like to draw worlds far more eccentric than the one I live in filled with creatures you could only imagine. I love to draw dragons and features of mythology. They have always been my favourite things to create. I find them beautiful. There is something about them that I connect with. They are all strong, independent, passionate , courageous and overall beautifully unique. Growing up I would always draw violent and disturbing images and people would always comment and ask why they weren’t pretty. My answer would always be the same ‘ because my thoughts aren’t’. My art would display my inner thoughts and emotions hence why most the people I draw don’t have faces. I’m not trying to straight up show an emotion but rather invoke and express one.
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Combining the surreal with elements of realism has played a huge role in my practice this year; in these confusing and stressful times I found myself looking for answers through my pieces. My work combines the world around me with my inner psyche to attempt a translation of what I see in the world. My work is intentional, I try to ensure every brush stroke and marking has a story and life of its own. I love using colour and mixing new mediums to create or express new ideas. I believe very strongly that art can help us comprehend ourselves by allowing the conscious and subconscious to collaborate.
Clockwise L-R: UNTITLED, acrylic paint, graphite, collage on paper. A4, 2021.
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MIRROR, acrylic paint, alcohol marker, thread on unprimed paper. A1, 2021.
SO YOU LIKE THINGS TIDY?, Acrylic paint, graphic markers and fine liner on paper. A5, 2021.
Clockwise L-R: Connection, Acylic Paint on Paper, 140cm x 127 cm 2021. Big Blue, Acylic Paint on Paper, 130cm x 120cm, 2021.
Through intuitive painting, my art represents my interpretation of the human experience. Exploring themes of connection, I question the existence of myself and of the world around me. As I investigate my own connection to myself through my being and consciousness, I aim to understand the threads that connect life through the collective universe. As I examine the space that these connections take up, I explore how my individual experience is a part of a bigger, more universal reality. With bold colours and large images, my ambition is for the viewer to have this shared experience. As I capture the movement and harmony of these themes.
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Exist, Acylic Paint on Paper, 130cm x 110cm, 2021.
My name is Kayleigh Rushe, a 19 year old Fine Art student. I work across a variety of mediums, centering largely around paint. Over his past year I have been experimenting with writing and poetry. This has taken me on an experimental journey as I attempt to merge both worlds in my artwork. I seek to represent my psychic landscape through exploring honest raw and honest themes.
Clockwise L-R: Lost Mine, acrylic on canvass, 14 x 11 inch, 2021. Bottle of lies, oil on canvass, 20 x 15 inch, 2021. Hopes, acrylic on canvass, 14 x 11 inch, 2021. Ode to a rhyme, acrylic on canvass, 14 x 11 inch, 2021. Crisis point, mixed media on canvass, 14 x 11 inch, 2021. Anonymous, spray paint on canvass, 14 x 11 inch, 2021.
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Clockwise L-R: Who am I in 2021, 4x4 ceramic cube, reused clay, unfired painted with underglaze, 2021.
I like to explore different concepts by using a diverse range of materials. I am interested in bringing primitive mark-making to life, using conventional methods. Movement and motion are the main elements that underpin the work.
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Deception of colour, Unfired Earthen pottery Cylinder mug and cup, faces, 2021. The lost City , 2021.
The art that I create is mostly things I see everyday. I love taking photographs of sunsets and sunrises. I really enjoy abstract also. I have a liking for creating things with my hands, for example sewing and making 3D objects out of used materials. Ever since I was young, I have been fascinated by art. I’ve always had an interest. Growing up I was always drawing in pen and doodling in my copy book in school. I still enjoy this very much as I love the idea of not being able to run it out. So far this year I have learnt a lot more about art and the types of art I like doing.
Clockwise L-R: Line, 2021. 3D Textile, 2021. Paperboard, 2021. Abstract Faces, 2021.
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I am an artist studying Fine Art at Crawford College of Art & Design . I am from Clonakilty in West Cork. The inspiration for my work comes from poems, books, nature and photographs. A Terrible Fish, is a print on rice paper inspired by Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Mirror.’ Dad, Pigeons, Trafalgar Square, London is a glass panel I made at college in 2018, the image was taken from an old photograph of my dad as a child in Trafalgar Square with pigeons landing on him. Feeling like a Fish out of Water, the piece is a metaphor for how a lot of us have been feeling in this global COVID pandemic, that has temporarily changed all our lives and the way that we live. I use a variety of materials for my work these include; oil paint, acrylic, chicken wire, seaweed, stones, sticks, glass, charcoal and pencil.
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Clockwise L-R: A Terrible Fish!, Ink on Rice Paper, 10 x 15 cm, 2020. Dad, Pigeons, Trafalgar Square, London, Glass Panel, 24 x 20 cm, 2021. Feeling like a Fish out of Water!, chicken wire, seaweed, roll of paper, blue tissue and acrylic paint, 65cm x 6m, 2021.
My name is Michaela McCann. I like to use a lot of bright colours in my work and I often exaggerate them to make them stand out. I use a lot of different materials and mediums to suit the idea I have, sometimes combining different mediums for one idea. I like exploring and trying new mediums or materials that I haven’t tried before. I like making art with strong emotions, themes and moods. I can find inspiration in almost anything but like to do a lot of portraiture. I enjoy using metaphors and symbolism in my arty as well as using my own feelings and experiences for inspiration. I sometimes create something that shows up in one of my dreams. Creating art helps me to understand what I’m thinking and feeling. Focusing on that emotion or experience and letting it all out on paper helps me to give me understanding and closure. I sometimes create art based off other people’s emotions and experiences too which can help me see how differently people think and feel.
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In my work I am mostly focused on gaining skills in different mediums and learning how to develop ideas and themes in my work. In the pieces, I worked on taking objects and trying to change them into something strange, surreal or fantastical like taking a turtle and giving it a planet for a shell. In a lot of the pieces I also used found objects a medium a medium I particularly like either in the piece or as inspiration. Like taking a skull and attaching pipes to it in a way that it looks reminiscent of a car engine to me, but then putting the skull and pipes in a pond in Slow and Subversive and photographing it up close at water level which makes it seem larger reminding me of the ruins of a run down building on a river I saw once. Then in found object apocalypse I drew some of my found object as if they were a destroyed city or in an old junkyard somewhat inspired by some of Jamie Hewlett’s art for Gorillaz. For me this is what I like to do most in my art is take things from my imagination and turn them into images.
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Clockwise L-R: Slow and Submersive, Found Object Sculpture/ Photography - Skull, 26cm long, 2020. Fan Fire, Found Object and Plaster Casts, 7cm long each, 2021. Found Object combinations, Found Objects/ Photography - Skull, 26 cm long, 2021.
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I work in painting, sculpture, textiles, photography and multimedia. I find my inspiration in the everyday, in the events and images I encounter as I walk, wander and look. I like work that provokes a physical reaction...the instinct to touch something, feeling dwarfed by a structure, the sensation of dancing across a canvas following the colour. Artists whose work I enjoy include Helen Frankenthaler, Bridget Riley and Mark Bradford.
Clockwise L-R: Untitled, Mix Media, 2020. Soft, Mix Media, 2021. Rigid, Mix Media, 2021.
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There are many things in the world that influence me as an artist and my artwork. I love painting things around me that are interesting to look at and if I can put my own twist on it. Nature is something I especially like to look at and paint. I grew up with a few people in my family that were very interested in art and that’s where I got inspired to start drawing and painting. Jim Sheehy is my grand uncle who was a lecturer at Limerick college of art and design who used to teach printmaking. The person who inspired me the most to start painting was my nana, Katherine O’ Riordan. Every weekend when I was younger I would go painting with her in her studio. I love working with all media such as watercolour, coloured pencil, markers and much more. My main interest growing up was animation but my goal for my time at Crawford is to broaden my knowledge on other aspects of art that I think would improve me immensely as an all-round artist.
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Clockwise L-R: Found, Mix Media A4, 2021. Urban, Mix Media A2, 2021. Rigid, Mix Media A4, 2021.
My work is deeply rooted in the expression of
under the Catholic church, where the female
physical and emotional pain. My creative process
body is regarded as little more than vessel.
is often deliberate in that I won’t meticulously
Because I deal with religious imagery, I reference
plan a painting but will instinctively work based
historical religious painting and sculpture, while
on my emotional state. Because of this, my
dealing with contemporary issues such as
paintings are like photographs in how they
feminist issues, mental illness, socio-political
offer a snapshot of a time and place in my life. I
issues, gender, body positivity and sex-related
compare my painting process to improvisational
trauma. Currently I am investigating my own
performance art. I find myself slipping in and out
feelings around BPD and identity issues,
of trance while I paint, and this makes my work
specifically genderrelated identity issues. As a
expressionistic. I make use of violent brush
genderfluid and nonbinary person I struggle with
strokes and dripping paint as references to the
feelings of invalidation because my art speaks
intense emotions I feel. I incorporate religious
to the female experience and through a female
iconography in my visual language in order
lens. All of my experiences have been lived
to express, not only the realities of living with
through a female body and with me being treated
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), but
as a cis-gendered person, leaving me with a
also how its manic states connects to spiritual
feeling of identity dysphoria. I’d like to challenge
revelation. More generally I set out to use this
these issues along with ideas about perception,
iconography as an instrument of recounting
disconnect and invalidation.
the experience of growing up as female in Ireland
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Clockwise L-R: Divine Confidence, Acrylic on Paper, 59.4cm x 84.1cm, 2021. Ophelia, Acrylic on Paper, 59.4cm x 84.1cm, 2021. The Nation’s Shame, Digital, 42.33cm x 42.33cm, 2021.
My art is an expression of how I perceive that world. I live life through patterns, structure, lines and shape. I translate this through manipulation of materials, to create something that tests the idea of a materials purpose. My work is abstract and focuses on the movement in drawing and the exploration of different types of mark making. I like to bring a sensory element to my work like texture or light. I find it hard to verbally communicate, I want to be able to say who I am and how I think and feel through visual mediums. I’m at the start of sharing my voice, and with that I’m starting to understand more of what I have to say.
Clockwise L-R: Lost 2, Acrylic and crayon on canvas board, 2021. Lost 1, Acrylic and marker on canvas, 42.0 x 59.4cm, 2021. Lost 2, Maker and tape on embroidered fabric with back stitch and couching. 1 5 x 15cm, 2021. The Docks, Paper and acrylic on a board, 42.0 x 59.4cm, 2021.
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Deirdre Breen Sarah Morey Kevin Tuohy Trish Brennan Catherine Fehily Aoife Claffey Feargal Cunningham Bill O’Flynn Fiona Kelly Megan Eustace Debbie Dawson Luke Sisk Mary Cronin
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CONTACT MTU Crawford College of Art and Design, Sharman Crawford St, Cork, T12 XK25 crawford.cit.ie Phone +353 (0) 21 433 5222 Instagram @mtu_crawford Facebook @crawfordcollegeofartanddesign
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