Spring at the heart of outdoor display
Work by five talented artists celebrating the arrival of spring will be projected onto a wall at Cavan Town’s Egg Market this weekend.
Cavan artists Marilyn Gaffney and Rosie Cole were invited to explore the theme of “portals of wellbeing”, bringing in individual and community experiences in the past year. A portal is defined as a way in, an entrance or doorway.
The Cavan pair were invited to participate in the event as part of Faoin Spéir.
Facilitators Kim Doherty and Heather Brett also enlisted fellow artists including Caroline Conway from Co. Offaly, Julie Aldridge, art therapist and artist living in Co. Cork, and Co Louth based Colm Mullen for the project.
The artists considered Brigid and the month of February as a move from the dark of winter into spring light, and new ways of identifying with place and time. The work created by each artist is diverse but shares one platform in a short animation with ‘portals of wellbeing’ at its core.
Filmmaker Colm Mullen worked with the Drumalee Film and Photography Club to compile a short film that the group had worked on during COVID-19 in response to place.
A video projection of the resulting work from the artists will be available on the gable wall over the Kinnypottle River on James Connolly Street at the Egg Market, Cavan on Saturday and Sunday, February 5 and 6 from 6-8pm.
Different methods have been adapted from a singular painted image by Julie Aldridge to a stop motion animation from Marilyn Gaffney.
“I have created a stop motion which includes drawings that represent Saint Brigid as the Patron Saint of the house, women, homemakers, midwives, fire, and babies. Saint Brigid is known as a loyal advocate for women, wives, and mothers. The Celtic Goddess Brigid was associated with fertility, the spring, fire, birth, and all things of creation,” Marilyn says. “With the couple of years of being isolated living through the Covid Pandemic, motherhood, for many mothers, has posed a different experience.
“The illustrations reflect upon these mothers and their innate bond to their babies.”