My guest today is Monika Crowley, a printmaker, oil painter and visual artist from Dublin, Ireland, and a mother of 2.

Monika spent 20 years in commercial advertising and design, to which she credits her bold graphic style. Her practice explores the trauma of change and identity crisis, domesticity, the traditional structure of the home & the changing expectations of modern motherhood. Monika uses mundane objects in a symbolic, transformative manner whereby they become totems & talismans of the past.

Monika strives to capture the essence of a mothers guilt, the feeling of being torn in two and the resentment from the other self. A decade on, her work still documents the internal struggle between the selves Mother/Artist. Her work walks a line between anger & love, between despair & joy, her explorations of the everyday are often raw and unadulterated, showing a grimness through the repetition of daily chores, but at times finding a quiet beauty in the mundane.

We also have a little chat about the Irish horse racing industry, of which Monika's father and her family were a significant part of.

**This episode contains discussions around Cancer, grief and loss of a parent**

View Monika's work Space Invaders / Motherload / Compart Mental Isation

Monika - website / instagram -

Watch a starling murmuration -

Podcast - instagram / website

Music used with permission from Alemjo - Australian new age and ambient music trio