This collection of paintings explore how land can connect us to our heritage and culture. Stemming from a grá for Irish landscapes that conflict with familiar ties to the industrialism of boglands, the paintings discuss this ethical contradiction, as I try to figure out where I stand.
Site visits are crucial to my process as the bog is not somewhere I am familiar with. I hold a touch of jealousy towards other people’s connection to the bog; I don’t have a personal experience with it “I’ve no spade to follow men like them” as Heaney put it. I cannot connect to the bog in the way others talk with such vivid memories, I can only engage with it as a visitor. I navigate these feelings of unease and fear of trespassing, while being filled with a strong sense of connection to the past and to traditions gone during these visits. The paintings aim to capture that fear and thrill of being surrounded by the vast bogland, of being ‘caught’ in a space I do not belong. The juxtaposition of these emotions informs my work as I look at the bog through a lens of unfamiliarity.