Irish visual artist Rachel Doolin chats to Éadaoin Glynn about the challenge of taking the leap to become a professional artist, how materials inspire her, her slow research-based, collaborative approach and why she likes writing grant applications.

Rachel graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the Crawford College of Art & Design and has received many awards, grants and residencies. Rachel's multidisciplinary approach merges art, experimentation, and ecology.  She collaborates with artists, NGOs,  community and professional organisations to create meaningful artworks in response to social and environmental issues. 

In this episode Rachel talks about:

Read the full blog post.

Resources and links:

Archaeologist Clíodhna Ní Lionáin explains why Dowth is the most important megalithic find in Ireland in the past 50 years on YouTube.

Eco-Poxy resin

Woodskin

Irish Seed Savers 

Madeleine McKeever

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Will Bonsall 

SeedCLOUD 

Anne Marie Deacy 

James.L.Hayes 

Beili Liu 

Katie Paterson

Cal Flynn - Islands of Abandonment 

Solstice Arts Centre

Rachel Doolin on Instagram 

Rachel Doolin website

National Sculpture Factory

Éadaoin Glynn on Instagram

Vanity galleries are parasites who feed on emerging artists' aspirations to show their work.  They make their money from artists' hopes and dreams.

The origin of the name comes from vanity publishing.  They were a last resort for authors whose books were not deemed commercially viable by traditional publishers. They would publish any work at the right price. Authors could claim to have work published, but they had paid for it.

With vanity galleries, it's a little bit different because the artist is duped. The artist thinks it's genuine and an an investment worth risking.

A vanity gallery charges the artist fees to exhibit the work and they make their money from the artist rather than from sales to the public.

Vanity galleries are not curated and they will exhibit anyone who pays. They may charge a fee to join them, charge the artist to send their work, to exhibit etc. It's all about money. It's pure commercial operation.

Commercial art galleries get their profit from sales of artwork and spend years following artists before inviting them to join them.   If the artwork sells, the gallery makes a profit, and the artist is then paid.

Vanity galleries have no incentive to sell art, as they have already been paid by the artist. Vanity galleries are not selective because they do not have to be.

They are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their approach. If you're wondering if an approach is genuine, google ' is x a vanity gallery?' There are websites that show lists of vanity galleries and the many different names they use.

Resource: Howsmydealing

Have you any vanity gallery experiences?

Follow Éadaoin on Instagram.

Annie Hogg is a visual artist based in Co. Tipperary, Ireland. After graduating with a Diploma in Fine Art from the Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork in 2001 and a BA in sculpture from Aki College of Art in The Netherlands in 2002, Annie worked and lived in environmental protest camps and learned organic horticulture. 

When Annie Hogg was in art college, her interest in the environment was dismissed as not being 'real art', causing her to abandon her art practice.  Twenty years later, her work gravitates around the themes of solastalgia, ecopsychology and transformation. She uses plants, soils, stones, shells and found bones in her art practice, creating pigments and charring foraged objects from the landscape as a votive action to create paint and sculpture. She has won several awards, residencies and art grants, most recently was the winner of the K-Fest Arts Festival in Killorglin Co. Kerry.   

Annie talks about:

Annie also teaches workshops both online and in-person. Contact Annie or see her work on:

www.instagram.com/anniehogg_thewidhedgeinkco

www.anniehoggstudio.com

Full show notes and images available.

Contact Éadaoin on instagram.com/eadaoin_glynn and www.eadaoinglynn.com/podcast

Artists who inspire Annie include:

Pierre Soulages

https://www.pierre-soulages.com/

Jesse Jones

https://www.jessejonesartist.com/

Aideen Barry

https://www.aideenbarry.com/

Books:Caroline Ross - Found and Ground A practical guide to making your own foraged paints

https://www.instagram.com/foundandground/

Heidi Gustafson - Book of Earth A guide to Ochre pigment and raw colour https://www.instagram.com/heidilynnheidilynn/

'Dreamtime' by John Moriarty

https://www.lilliputpress.ie/author_post/john-moriarty

Contributors to LOST:

Natalia Beylis sound artis

thttps://www.nataliabeylis.com/

https://www.instagram.com/nataliabeylis/

Adrienne Diamond glass blower

https://www.glasssocietyofireland.ie/user/adiamond/

Sinead Brennan of Glint Glass Studio

https://www.instagram.com/sineadbrennanglass/https://www.instagram.com/glintglassstudio/

Mick Wilkins on bronze

http://wilkinsart.ie/

https://www.instagram.com/mick_wilkins/

Other mentions:

Flora Arbuthnott of Plants & Colour

https://plantsandcolour.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/plants_and_colour/ 

James Horan was the friend to whom our lecturer told“You have to put in the work to make the work”

https://www.jameshoransculpture.com/

https://www.instagram.com/jameshoransculpture/

LOST exhibited atSouth Tipp Arts Centre (as a result of Residency Award ‘22/’23)

https://www.southtippartscentre.ie/K-Fest

https://www.kfest.ie/

blood bone rust & stone exhibited atLily Gallery Beara

https://www.instagram.com/liligallerybeara/

And Cahir Arts

https://cahirarts.com/

Annie attended a three-week soil research residency in 2023 with 

https://www.live-art.ie/

I blocked myself from creativity for decades. I didn't go to art school even though I had a place. Perhaps I felt I had to pursue something more sensible in life? Perhaps I just didn't give myself permission at that time to become a painter?

Distraction

I used to distract myself from this gap in my life..the void of not being creative. I used to distract myself by buying things. I think that was filling something inside me, because now I no longer have that impulse.

Motherhood

I wasted a lot of time trying to be a perfect mother. ... I spent a lot of time baking. I made very elaborate birthday cakes... all that creative energy was going into baking, into cooking. Since returning to painting, I've abandoned the concept of perfectionism. 

I painted privately in my home for a long time before I had the courage to share my work. I felt very shy, very private. I wasn't brave enough to share my work.

'The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron

When I was struggling to find my way back into some kind of creative life, having never lived a creative life, I read Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way. The first time I read her book, I tried writing.  It seemed the obvious choice having studied literature. I had a Masters in French literature.  I spent years trying to write poetry and fiction.  It never came easily. I was using my laptop, it felt very much like work. I was at a desk, I was distracted by email. It felt very like my work life, my day job, it just never flew, there was never any flow.

Years later, I started Julia Cameron's book again and this time it  resonated differently with me. She includes several exercises about trying to tap back into what resonated with you when you were a child.

"[For me] it was painting, it was always painting. And for whatever reason I didn't give myself permission to paint before...when I started painting again, I felt so true to myself. It felt so real in a way that nothing else in my life felt real. It was like as if I was acting, performing in so many parts of my life. And when I painted, it was my authentic self."

"I've been masking my whole life. I have been imitating others, trying to behave like others, trying to fit in. Painting in my studio is the only place where I don't mask, where I am completely myself."

Creative Blocks

Other things that block me include:

I experience a low point after completing a body of work, especially for exhibition. For me the wheel of creation was spinning very fast as I worked hard towards my fixed deadline.  Afterwards the wheel stops, there's no momentum.  There's a lull, a fallow period while I feel very uncreative.  I'm exhausted, depleted.  I need to rest, replenish, find inspiration again. 

Overcoming Creative Blocks

"Keep believing in yourself . Believe that with every painting, every body of work, your work is getting stronger. Keep following that voice inside you that's leading you."

I hope this has been helpful and given you some suggestions If you have any other suggestions of things you do when you're blocked, I'd love to hear them.

You can see my work on instagram: @eadaoin_glynn and on www.eadaoinglynn.com

"The art world is slow. It is not fast. There's no ten steps to make it in the art world...Some people have two steps, some have 400 steps, some have 20 steps, some have 30 steps. The art world moves at its own pace. And at the end of the day, it's all about the work"

Ty Clark is a visual artist, film maker, sculptor and writer based in Waco, Texas.  He produced an award winning film, Jump Shoot and is currently working on a documentary series.  He began a Mentorship Programme in 2021, through which he has mentored 49 artists from 17 countries. He recently wrote his first novel. He has exhibited extensively and is represented in many major US cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

US artist Ty Clark chats to Éadaoin Glynn about:

Ty's two person exhibition, 'Of Warm Impermanence' with Vy Ngo, runs until 22 July 2023 in Arts Center Waco, Texas.

Show notes available in the blog. See more of Ty's work on Instagram: @tynathanclark and his website: www.tynathanclark.com.

Contact Éadaoin on Instagram: @eadaoin_glynn and her website: www.eadaoinglynn.com

Cork based Orla O’Byrne explores overlooked histories of sites and artefacts.  She works across a variety of media and techniques such as drawing, photography and sculpture. Orla rebelled against going to art college after school, travelled and lived abroad, before having children, setting up a bakery business and eventually went to art college aged 35.  She has an MA in Art & Process and a BA in Fine Art from The Crawford College of Art and Design.  She is a member of the board of directors of the Backwater Artists where her studio is based.  Some of her awards include The Lavit Gallery Student of the Year and the CIT Registrar’s Prize.   Orla talks to Éadaoin Glynn about:

Full shows and images available in the blog.

www.orlaobyrne.com

Instagram: @orla_o_byrne

Contact Eadaoin

www.eadaoinglynn.com

Instagram: @eadaoin_glynn

I've talked about entering open calls and managing rejection in episode 6.  In this episode, I talk about going to exhibition openings. 

When you get a yes, when your artwork, painting or sculpture is accepted, you have to celebrate because they're so rare, those yeses...If at all possible, you have to try and go to that opening night.

Opening nights are a way of meeting other artists. I believe you have to get outside of your studio and try and connect with the art world in some way, no matter how scary it is. I'm an introvert and shy but I'm motivated to meet other artists.

In this episode, I share:

Full show notes available

Contact Éadaoin on Instagram @eadaoin_glynn and www.eadaoinglynn.com

Galway photographer Enda Burke gave a TED Talk on creativity and has been featured in The Guardian, Rolling Stone Magazine, Forbes Magazine and The Observer. He has been shortlisted for the Sony World Photo awards , The Zurich Portrait award and Saatchi Art Visions of the Future. Recent Awards include the international Bartur Photo Prize, Profifoto “best of new Talent award” 2022 and Lens Culture Home 21’.

Enda's practice entails building elaborate sets filled with  props from everyday life and with narratives played out by his family and friends . His work is saturated with vivid neon colours and it is nostalgic, kitch and humorous.   

He chats to Éadaoin about:

Full show notes available.

Follow Enda on Instagram @enda35mm and www.endaburke.com

Follow Éadaoin on Instagram @eadaoin_glynn and www.eadaoinglynn.com

Aoife Nolan's successfully operated her own fashion business for over a decade before going to art college. Aoife describes this change like a switch, like shutting one door and opening another. In the Crawford College of Art and Design, she was awarded the RHA student access programme and her graduate show received several awards.  She has exhibited in Ireland and in the Endicott College, Massachusetts in the US. 

Aoife describes her work as the merging of interior and exterior landscape and her work is inspired our need for connection and for connection to the earth.

Aoife's practice includes experimental processes, such as corroding copper, making her own pigments from natural materials and harvesting rainwater. 

Aoife chats to Éadaoin about:

Full show notes and images are available.

See Aoife's work on Instagram @aoife_nolan_

Contact Éadaoin on Instagram @eadaoin_glynn and www.eadaoinglynn.com

My time in the studio is my most precious resource. When you're an artist, you're self employed. You probably have a day job. Your time in the studio, your creative time is really, really precious.

There's so many things you have to do apart from the creative side. There's so much admin involved in being an artist - managing and tracking applications, submissions, sales, paintings and marketing.

In this podcast, I share my top admin tools. I'm not into perfectionism. I want to do admin as efficiently and quickly as possible. These are the tools I use every day so I can spend less time on my laptop and have more time in the studio. 

Go to  www.artworkarchive.com/warrior for a 20% discount and to try it out for free.

Read the show notes for more detailed tips.

Contact Éadaoin on instagram @eadaoin_glynn and through her website www.eadaoinglynn.com