Artwork by Lorraine Whelan . . .
The Key, 2017
This is a unique book, made as a gift, using a simple stab-binding technique. Each page contains a drawing, rubbing, or watercolour of a house key, using a variety of materials. A floral doily was pressed into the clay while wet to create a pattern on the covers. Garden wire was used to bind the book.
- ceramic earthenware covers; front approximately 9 cm x 4 cm
x .4 cm, back approximately 9 cm x 9 cm x .4 cm
- drawings are on handmade acid-free Indian rag (Khadi) paper,
210 g/m2
- each drawing size is approximately 8.5 cm x 5 cm
- acid free papers were used for the endpapers, 160 g/m2
- garden wire binding
Artist Statement / Bio
I was born in Toronto, Canada into a large Irish immigrant family. Shortly after obtaining my primary degree in 1986, I moved to Ireland to where my parents and half my siblings had already returned.
My writing (poetry, art criticism & commentary, fiction, non-fiction) has been published in Ireland, Canada, USA, Luxembourg & online.
I have exhibited my artwork throughout Ireland in both solo and group exhibitions and have exhibited in group exhibitions in France, China and Canada. I have participated in artist residencies and symposia and my work is included in private (US, Canada, Australia, UK & Belgium) and in public/corporate collections (Microsoft WPGI, OPW, HSE, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Europol & IBM).
For over 30 years I have created bodies of work that are inspired and challenged by my environment and circumstances, which are regularly in flux. The study and analysis of dreams plays a large part in much of my work and the development of dream imagery informs the iconography used in both visual and verbal work.
I have worked on projects in response to a specific brief, site, concept, or combination of these. I am fascinated with the immediacy of temporary work yet equally interested in archives and permanence. While I consider myself primarily a painter, I love to experience and experiment with any manner of media. I freely use any media to suit an idea, which is the paramount consideration.
I believe that it is through the expression of individual responses to life circumstances that wider truths can be discovered and understood.
I am an artist. I am here. I remember. I draw. I write. I tell stories.