“Incoming Tide” 2012

So how did an Australian artist happen to be part of this notebook project? Blame Ireland, its artists and most of all its wonderful landscape!

I first came to Ireland from Australia in 2009 as an Artist in Residence at the Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan. The landscape in the area is astonishing, and I returned to the Burren during June/July for the next three years.

'Incoming Tide' is all about the land, the sea and the creative play they generate when an artist engages with possibilities in the Burren shoreline around New Quay, Co. Clare.

My notebook was completed over a period of four weeks in July 2012, is an exploration of tidal flow in the area around Flaggy Shore beach and the tiny harbour of New Quay, Co. Clare. Allowing the land to enter my work means that in this piece inks are mixed with seawater, and some written text was executed using handmade reed pens from grasses near the harbour edge. I am inspired by the writings of Irish poet John O'Donoghue, and there are a couple of quotations within the notebook. The cover images were created by allowing waves to wash over the paper. Materials used include Japanese silk threads that weave their way through each page culminating in a spiral bookmark. Found objects such as dried seaweed and ink-stained paper make reference to the complex layering of the land and the eroding power of tidal movement. A few tiny cardboard tags offer visual snippets from another more personal daily visual diary. My “Incoming Tide” notebook is a meditation on the land and sea, part of a daily ritual working with large Japanese brushes, inks and threads. There is great joy and a sense of creative satisfaction in knowing that others will be able share in my meditative journey and be inspired by this beautiful part of Ireland's west coast.