View the winning entries and shortlisted artwork in RCPI’s Art Competition - Climate and Health

‘All Tomorrows Weather’ is a digital collage which visualizes the link between coal burning and mining activities we carry out on, or under, ground and the resulting consequences for our skies. As a result of carbon emissions our atmosphere is becoming warmer and more polluted. Greater atmospheric temperatures result in a more energetic atmosphere, larger heat differentials from area to area and ultimately stronger winds and more extreme weather formations.  

Printed on Hahnemuhle Cotton Rag Museum Grade Archival Paper 

Anthony D Kelly is a Writer, Visual Artist and Integrative Psychotherapist. He works mainly with Illustration and Collage techniques to create hopeful, humorous, and sometimes unnerving and deeply satirical imagery. He is currently based in Castlebar, County Mayo. 
 
He is a proactive member of the Irish Collage Community. He has exhibited across Ireland, Europe and in the U.S.A. and has delivered workshops and lectures at Collagistas Festivals 5 & 6 in Dublin and Brussels. He has been chosen as the World Collage Day Artist 2023. 
 
Anthony is greatly interested in the Arts as an effective method for engagement with Social, Political and Global Development issues; and for seeking beyond the known to formulate the new. 

www.freeformtrouble.com  
Instagram: @freeformanto 

‘The Long Lawn: My Grandfather’s Garden’ is an artist’s book created in response to the artist’s grandfather’s planting diaries which span nearly ten years (1987 - 1995).   His diaries record the daily tasks he carried out in the garden, down to the seed mix he used for the grass to every time he cut the lawn.  They capture the changes in weather and climate over the ten-year period and its effect, not just on his garden, but also how it was affecting my grandparents’ health and wellbeing at the time. The Long Lawn is her own artistic response to his diaries and to her memories of working in the garden with him. It is a limited-edition book, printed in 2 colours on paper using risograph print.  The book is 105 x 210mm in size and includes 48 pages of drawings and scans from the diaries.   

Aoife Barrett is a printmaker with a broad social practice, embedded within the building and practising of Print Van Go (PVG), travelling print studio. From rural communities in Tipperary (Local Link Tipperary bus service & Clonoulty Tidy Villages 2020-’23) to hospital beds in Galway (Saolta Arts 2018-’20) & youth centres in Dublin (Core Youth Service & Clondalkin Youth Service, 2020-‘21), PVG is a laboratory for creative experiments; making space for the voices of others by co-creating artworks inspired by stories and experiences.  

Recent artist in residence with the Tipperary Food Producers Network focused on the heritage of farming and food production in Ireland; culminating in an interactive print and table mat installation as an experimental space to prompt discussion and activity around food debates and the connections we forge through food and food production 

http://www.printvango.ie  
Facebook  /printvango 
Instagram @printvango/ 

Paper collage with gold ink. The mulch and detritus of the forest floor represent fecundity, transformation, symbiosis and rebirth. This piece is the fourth in a series exploring the richness and preciousness of the decomposing - but very much alive, and life-giving - forest floor and its fungi.  
 
Forests cover one-third of the Earth’s surface and provide a significant role in combatting climate change via carbon sinks, cloud-seeding, air purification, rainfall regulation and biodiversity. Not only are the trees of forests vital for these benefits, but the ‘below-ground’ ecosystem is equally as important. To quote conservation leader Mark Tercek: “If trees are the ‘lungs’ of the planet, fungal networks are the ‘circulatory systems’”.  

Dublin based artist Aoife Cassidy is heavily inspired by the woods of her local Phoenix Park and her husband’s home of Co Clare. Her recent work has focussed on the ‘oft-overlooked’ forest floor and its fungi, and how their role in death, decay and decomposition is essential to providing life. 
 
Working in mixed media she uses collage to echo the building of layers upon layers that occurs with the growth and decay cycle in nature. Her work frequently incorporates gold ink or foil to ‘evoke a sense of the sacred’. 
 
She is currently studying Visual Arts Practice in NCAD and has exhibited work multiple times in the Oisín Gallery and several times as part of NCAD’s CEAD exhibition.  

She works as a doctor and lecturer in Paediatrics.   

‘Interconnected’ speaks to the primal human need for connection.  

Connection to a sense of self, connection to each other and interconnection with our collective home; earth.  

While on a beach walk to clear the head, surface cracks on a large sheet of rock, resembled wrinkles on the surface of human skin.  Envisaging sheaths of rock as a type of skin on mother earth.  Barefoot, skin to skin contact between human and earth, the potential for a new type of carbon footprint emerged, founded in reciprocity. Human and earth exist in symbiotic interplay. This contemporary drawing meditates on reconnecting, rediscovering, new and simple pleasures. Hope for a new cultural landscape. Human health and health of the wider community of life, rivers, trees, air, soil, are nurtured and respected equally to the benefit of all. 

Materials; beachcombed charcoal, chalk pastel on 300g Arches watercolour paper.  

Aoife Nolan holds a BA(Hons) Fine Art, from MTU, Crawford College of Art & Design, 2022. Her graduation exhibition received several awards and residencies, her written thesis received a first.  

Nolan has exhibited nationally and internationally including a solo exhibition of new work in 2023, supported by Sample-Studios, Cork and an upcoming solo exhibition of new work 2024, supported by The Arts Council of Ireland.  

Finding inspiration in nature and yogic practice, Nolan works primarily on two dimensions. Processes used include drawing, painting, collage, indexing and photography. Materials used include harvested rainwater, clay, charcoal, copper gilding and handmade corroded copper ink. Copper, a material found in earth, in human tissue and known to conduct energy, is employed as a metaphysical representation of human/earth interconnection. Prior to reorientating her career towards working full time as an artist, Nolan worked for over a decade in bridal and costume design for stage and screen. 

Instagram: @aoife_nolan_ 

The colour blue is often associated with calmness, serenity and the natural world, so it can be a great choice to represent breath, respiration and the impact of climate change on health. It is a colour that can evoke a sense of connection to nature and the environment. 

When painting the artists attempts to portray and capture the feeling of fresh air, the act of inhaling and exhaling by using a technique of creating light and wispy effects from the inks. She sets out convey a powerful and important message. 

Bernie Anderson first fell in love with art as a child in London. Born in the UK to a mother from Co Cavan and father from Co Donegal, she won a competition in the Borough of Brent at the age of 8 years old where she  painted her favourite muse, horses. 

She studied art as a leaving cert subject and then left it behind when she commenced her career as a mental health nurse for 38 years. She finally returned to art and painting in 2000 when she moved back to Donegal and found herself attending art classes again, when possible, between work and rearing her two children. She found painting very therapeutic and was an antidote to the stress of her career. Her dream was to be able to paint full time, which she realised in 2021 when she established herself as a professional artist. 

Her preferred mediums are Watercolours, Alcohol inks, Encaustic Wax and oils. 
She is mostly self-taught but has studied under Alexis Bonavitacola, Grahame Booth, Anna Martin and Morgan Ferriter. Her desire is to create paintings which are uplifting, inspiring and connect to the viewer. 

Bernie was selected for the Derek Hill exhibition at the Glebe Gallery 2014 and 2018. Placed 2nd in Alcohol ink Competition Montana USA 2017. 

Her artwork is published in "Treasure each Voice " book 2005, Artists Eye on Kerry 2023, and she has participated in many group exhibitions .  

www.bernieandersonartist.com    
Facebook  @BernieAndersonArtwork 
Instagram @BernieAndersonArtist  

The artist paints in a photo realistic style in oils on canvas.  

She has always been fascinated by the life force and ever-changing mood of the sea. ‘The Far Horizon’ depicts the grey mist descending over a quiet sea in Scotsman's Bay, Dun Laoghaire. 

Brigitte Mc Govern was born and raised in Hamburg. She studied art and design at the College of Art and Design in Hamburg, graduating with a first-class honours degree. 

She has been living and working in Ireland since1979. While she has always painted. Between 1995 and 2020 she has taught art to people with special needs in two day centres in Dublin. 

In 2003 she was awarded the Douglas Hyde gold medal for her painting I recognise the slope of his shoulder. In 2003 she exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy's annual exhibition. In 2008 she was invited to a residency in Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry. 

She is a member of the Dublin Painting and Sketching Club. 

Works are held in private collections in Ireland, England, Germany, Spain, USA and New Zealand. 

This hand felted and needle felted piece undeniably screams fire. Over the past year there have been numerous wildfires. It's frightening. The earth is burning. 

Caitríona Nolan qualified as a nurse in 1995 and was working St James Hospital. During a secondment as a student nurse she taught art in St Brendans 

In 2001 awarded an Honours Degree in Textile Design from NCAD. 

2006, she qualified as a primary school teacher from St Marys Twickenham, and enthusiastically taught art and design. 

In 2021, Caitríona exhibited two felt pieces in the Luan Gallery, Athlone. 

Instagram @caitrionanolan1 

The sculpture represents the Earth, the mother of all mothers, the nourisher, the feeder. We are part of it, rooted in it, fed by it. But the feeder is hurting. When the feeder is under such stress, it cannot provide and meet the needs of its offspring.  
 
Our health depends on the health of the Earth. We are not apart from it, but we are a part of it. We seem to be far from understanding that we are nature and that the health of the rest of nature is also our health.  

Born in Spain and based in Dublin, Carmen Garcia’s textile practice mainly involves felt making and contemporary embroidery. She has also worked as a Milliner.  
 
She is interested in the materiality of textile art, its texture, its sensory, tactile quality, and the immediate intimate feeling it confers. It’s in textile art where she finds the place to connect body/material and feeling.  
 
She often uses text in her work, marrying her love of textile art with her love of languages and previous training as a translator. Using these qualities she explores the subjects of loss, repair, tear, deconstruction. 
 
Member of the Design and Craft Council of Ireland and Feltmakers Ireland. Some of her work has been included in exhibitions such as Sculpture in Context in the Botanic Gardens and exhibitions organised by Feltmakers Ireland.  

Instagram @carmengarciadesign 

“Eyes” The Window to the Soul’ speaks to the long-term Impact of air pollution on the eyes. 

The piece is a translucent weather work created by using ink on velum and exposing it to the rain and wind. Velum has a shiny slippery surface, a bit like the surface of the eyeball. It echoes the floaters that appear after the eye injection for wet macular degeneration. The piece was created at Cill Rialaig Artists Retreat Co Kerry. 

The pollutants we breath can enter the bloodstream, damaging the small blood vessels within the eye itself. Beyond that studies have also shown that air pollution is linked to a higher risk of glaucoma--a debilitating eye condition that can cause blindness. Glaucoma causes blurred vision the work resembles the almost monotone colours that I experience after my injection for wet macular degeneration. 

Carole Shubotham grew up between a farm in Wicklow and Dublin, surrounded by the sea and mountains. She studied at NCAD, The New York Studio School, and is a member of the United Arts Club and Visual Artists Ireland.  

Her exhibitions include the RHA annual show and the Prince's Trust Wool Show London.  
She has led workshops at the Royal Dublin Society, Burren College of Art and her studio. Carole works best outdoors with the elements and keeps a daily visual diary of water colours. 
Her paintings tell a multitude of tales, each one a result of her own free-spirited style and the viewer's idiosyncratic response to her work. Carole's work glories in the journey, not the destination: in that step into the unknown where bold imagination holds sway and where, as Paddy Kavanagh reminds us 'life pours ordinary plenty'. 

www.Carole.ie 

Instagram @carolecsea/ 

Facebook / public/Carole-Shubotham 

‘The Power of Nature’ is a detailed hand stitched embroidery which embodies the beauty and fragility of the natural world. It is inspired by the relationship between nature and human and the impact of exposure to nature on our overall health.   

Claire O Reilly is an artist based in Newmarket, Co. Cork who graduated with a BA Honours degree from CIT Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork in 2015. She creates hand stitched detailed embroideries which embody the beauty and fragility of the natural world. Claire finds the repetitive motion of stitching to be meditative and therapeutic, allowing an escape from the digitally saturated world that surrounds her.  Each embroidery created requires the worlds most valued commodity which is time; embroidery is a slow process which requires one to be fully present in both body and mind. Human anatomy and nature are themes that can be seen across Claire’s work.  She is inspired by her own connection with nature and the solace that she finds in her daily woodland walks. 

www.claireoreillyartist.com 

Instagram @claireoreillyartist 

Facebook /claireoreillyartist 

‘Grasping’ draws imagery from classical mythology to communicate a sense of climate and personal precariousness in modern terms. 

Daithi O'Manachain (1997), graduated from NCAD in 2019. He has several paintings located in both private and state collections, such as Michael D. Higgins and RTE. In 2020, he was awarded a North-South Scholarship to study at Belfast School of Art.  

@DaithiOManachain - instagram  

‘After the Gulf Stream stopped’ is an imaginary, but realistic depiction of a familiar Irish landscape in the event that the Gulf Stream stops flowing. The consequences to the health and wellbeing of millions are terrifying to imagine. 
 
The Gulf Stream system could collapse as soon as 2025, a new study suggests. Researchers spotted warning signs of a tipping point in 2021. The new analysis estimates a timescale for the collapse of between 2025 and 2095, with a central estimate of 2050 if global carbon emissions are not reduced.  

Evidence from past collapses indicates changes of temperature of 10C in a few decades.  
Ireland is positioned at the same latitude as Labrador and Newfoundland in Canada. It is the effects of the Gulf Stream which gives Ireland our moderate temperate climate. The climate of Newfoundland is characterized by freezing, snowy winters, temperatures can drop to -25/-28 °C. 

Dave Madigan is a painter who works from Pallas Projects/Studios in the Digital Hub, Dublin. He studied Visual Arts Practice in IADT, graduating as a mature student in 2009.  

He creates paintings which reflect his interest and concerns in the social, psychological and political effects of new technologies on today’s society. He uses the traditional medium of oil on canvas. 

He has featured in many group exhibitions including at the Joinery, Mermaid Arts Centre, TULCA, DLR, and Annual Exhibitions at RHA Gallery, winning the Friends of the RHA Award for a Senior Artist in 2018;  and RUA Annual Exhibitions winning the Paul Henry Landscape Award in 2017. He was awarded the dlr Visual Art Commission in 2022, and the Landscapes & Oddities exhibition currently showing in DLR Lexicon is the result.

His work is featured in many public and private collections including the Office of Public Works, DCU Business School, and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. 

www.davemadigan.ie  
Facebook :  @dave.madigan.56 

The artist worked on ‘To be a pilot or stray’ during a residency in The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig woods in May of this year. At the time Edel was reading Merlin Sheldrake’s book ‘Entangled life’, about the ancient kingdom of underground fungal networks which scientists now believe may hold answers to some of the biggest climate problems we face. The book is a call to rethink our understanding of the natural world and its interconnected relationships to all things, including ourselves.  
  
‘To be a pilot or stray’ captures the feeling of the vastness of life around Edel in the woodland, the mystery and the feeling of being almost absorbed into it. 
  
The title of the painting is taken from Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘The Plantation’. 

Edel Campbell studied fine art in NCAD, graduating with a BA in painting in 1996. She also holds an MSc in Multimedia Systems from Trinity college, Dublin. Edel has exhibited her work in Ireland and abroad and her paintings have been purchased for many corporate and private collections. Most recently Edel has had paintings selected for The Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition in London and The Royal Hibernian Academy’s 193rd Annual Exhibition in Dublin. She is currently working towards a solo Exhibition in The Custom House Studios and Gallery in Westport, as part of their program for 2024/25 .
  
In addition to her studio work, Edel is a freelance arts facilitator. She has been on The National Gallery of Ireland’s Artists Panel since 2009, where she creates and delivers tailored art projects and workshops for the gallery’s Education, Early Years and Community Engagement programs.  

www.edelcampbell.com  

Joanna Macy’s workshop, ‘Council of All Beings’, explores ways for participants to collectively grieve the biodiversity and climate crisis as a group. Each person creates and wears a mask at the council gathering, representing a different species, imbuing that essence. In this case, the animals chosen are either extinct in Ireland or are on the critically endangered list. The person at the centre represents the human race who must listen and bear witness to the plight of those at council.  
 
The faded human, distracted by a mobile phone with dwindling concentration, can be imagined as our collective denial of our interdependence within the ecological web.  
 
“No man is an island, entire of itself;  
every man is a piece of the continent,  
a part of the main…. 
….therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; 
it tolls for thee.” 
 
John Donne, 1624 

Enagh Farrell is an illustrator based in Dublin. She is interested in the interwoven themes of animism, mythology, ecology and weaving together stories through visual narrative. Enagh graduated from Fine Print, NCAD in 2003. She received an MA in Visual Art Practices from IADT in 2011.  

www.enaghfarrell.com  
Instagram @enaghfarrell_illustration

‘Aftermath’ is selected from a body of work by the artist entitled:  “Deireadh Fómhair”.  The title translates as: the month of October but it literally means: ‘the end of harvest’.   

With every passing year, with the loss of biodiversity and the increasingly violent weather events etc. we are getting ever closer to that doomsday situation on this wonderful planet.  Many of the paintings from this group of works are scenes of the aftermath of forest fires. They are intended as ‘wake-up calls’ (before it’s too late). 

Eoin Mac Lochlainn graduated from NCAD in Dublin in 2000.  In 2008, he won the Golden Fleece Award, was shortlisted for the Davy Portrait Award and won the ESB Keating McLaughlin Medal at the RHA Annual Exhibition in 2010. He won an Arts Council Agility Award in 2022. 
 
He has had numerous solo exhibitions across Ireland and has participated in selected and invited exhibitions (RHA, RUA, Iontas, Éigse) and various group shows in Ireland, USA, England, France, Belgium, Georgia and China.  
 
His work is in the collections of: Air Lease Corporation, OPW, AIB, AXA Insurance, University of Limerick, Wesley College and the Boyle Civic Collection. 
 
He writes a weekly artblog Scéalta Ealaíne   

www.emacl.wordpress.com 

Instagram @/eoinmaclochlainn/?hl=en 

‘An Tuile’ explores the idea of a future world affected by climate change and the absurdity of living "normally" in such conditions.  
 
These are self-portraits with the artist positioned as both subject and observer, she invites the viewers to question their own place within these bizarre and unfathomable realities. The flooded environments depicted emphasise the inherent challenges we may face when attempting to reconcile our lives with a climate altered world. 

Erin Quinn is an award winning Irish/Canadian multi-disciplinary artist with her first practice primarily rooted in fine art photography. She also works with scent, creating conceptual olfactory art installations and is currently exploring AI as a tool in her visual arts practice. 

www.eqfactories.com  

‘The Beekeeper’, painted in acrylic on canvas, depicts a fictional character inspired by a story the artist was drafting. It contains elements of magic, mystery, environment, caring, health, and happiness through the use of vibrant colours and details.  You see “The Beekeeper” surrounded by buzzing bees, colorful flowers, and beehives. The painting also hints at the challenges and dangers where bees, that are crucial to the health of our ecosystem, are threatened by environmental stress. 

Eugene Worrall graduated from Dun Laoghaire College of Art.  
 
He recently exhibited in the Royal Academy London, Summer 2023, Royal Ulster Academy 2023, ArtNetdlr, Dun Laoghaire. 2022, 2023 Sandford Gallery, Leinster Gallery, Carroll Gallery, Longford, Los Angeles, U.S.A., France. 

www.eugeneworrall.com  

Using the material language, tacit knowledge and 'storied material' of seaweed as a natural valuable resource for producing oxygen and absorbing carbon can help us mitigate climate change. 
 
We are an island of shore people, of swimmers in the saltwater. We are only as healthy as our seas. 
Our water quality is declining at sea, and we have to remember that 'the sea starts here' from where we are living and working, everything we use on the land eventually ends up in the sea.  
 
The artist is gilding the natural material of seaweed with 24ct goldleaf material and asking the question what we value as materials in the natural world. 

Even though the seaweed air bladders are partially decomposed and dried, 'What Remains Is Strong' and this gives us great hope. 

These small works of materiality carry within them the story of impermanence and decay from the outset, the seasons of 'saving' these materials, their ephemeral life cycle on land and sea - a material metaphor for the environment. 

Frances Bermingham Berrow is a visual artist from Co. Clare. Her work and process explore materiality, form, rituals, observances, practices and communal forms of expression of living on a coastal landscape. 

Frances is a researcher and a maker of things who works in marine, heritage/folklore research and community projects.  

She completed her Heritage training ‘Learning from the Landscape’ in 2014. In 2018 she was part of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group’s sailing expedition to Iceland onboard Celtic Mist. Frances completed her Mould Making and Casting Course at LSAD in 2018 and is currently studying Art and Ecology in the NCAD Field as part of the Creative Futures Academy at NCAD.  

Frances has recently been awarded a Glór Artist Mentorship with Alannah Robbins/ Interface for 2023. She has had a joint exhibition 'Dabhach Bhríde' /St. Brigid's Well at Áras Éanna, Inis Óirr 2023.  

Her work has been selected for the upcoming First Biennial Exhibition at The Ballinglen Museum of Art in Oct 2023.  

francesbermingham@gmail.com  
instagram: @fransea 

The artist saw this image while travelling near Tarifa in Southern Spain. A hot wind was blowing sand up from the Sahara Desert. 

Frank H. Flood has been involved in the visual arts since graduating from NCAD in 1978. He has worked as a set designer, painter and sculptor ever since.  

www.frankhallinanflood.weebly.com    
frankhflood@gmail.com  

Concerned with the exigent and immediate issues of climate change, my practice focuses on coastal erosion and involves an awareness of the entanglement of natural and manufactured debris on the beach. My approach comprises of layered processes that reflect the mutability and fragile beauty of a littoral environment under threat. I explore the incongruity of manmade materials which strangely assume organic characteristics throughout the painting process.  

‘Frayed Rope’ (2021) began as a monoprint of a fragment of found rope, to which layers of media were added and scraped back, referencing the erosive action of severe weather. The manufactured rope has adopted the appearance of an organic form and, in the process, has created a dynamic composition. This unexpected transformation is an ironic confirmation of the insidious impact mankind has had on the coastline and, ultimately, on the health and safety of the public. 

Geraldine Leahy is a contemporary landscape artist with an interest in environmental concerns. She returned to education to study art, completing a BA (Hons) Painting Degree in 2022 with The University for the Creative Arts (UCA). Her practice involves the observation of traces and imprints in the littoral landscape, the marks of natural processes and human interventions. Observing the entanglements of natural and manmade materials on the beach, she uses shoreline debris in layered processes that suggest changes in the environment and encourage reflection on the effects mankind has had on the coastline. Her intriguing combinations of monoprint and paint reveal the devastating consequences of coastal erosion at a local level. However, the artist also brings this issue to universal attention through her continued engagement with art awards, digital and print publications, and physical and online exhibitions.   

www.gleahyart.com 

Instagram @/gleahyart/?hl=en 

‘Pollen Rising’ explores the vast increase in pollen counts in recent years and the negative impact this has on the health system. Previously a seasonal allergy for some has expanded to a year-round agitation for increasingly large numbers of people globally. The artist chose to focus on this topic given its relevance in people's day to day lives and the many knock-on effects it has on an already overwhelmed health service.   

The piece is situated in a natural but somewhat desolate environment, featuring a subject encircled in discomfort. This piece utilizes space and geometric shapes mimicking microscopic imagery of pollen variations as well as the common dandelion.  

Hazel Coonagh is a photographic based visual artist from Dublin. Her work uses photographic portraits as a basis to invent and explore narratives she is passionate about.  

Her practice is focused on producing surreal and conceptual imagery. She uses digital photography as a base for her work due to its innate realism and contemporary qualities. Using contrasting traditional materials and techniques found in embroidery, forms a unique and alluring effect, aiding in delivering surrealistic narratives and concepts. 

www.hazelcoonagh.com 

instagram @hazelcoonagh

This three-dimensional set piece in wood brings to mind the way small turned boxes were used to hold pills in the past, contrasting with the trend now to package medicinal treatments in plastic and aluminium which are harder to recycle or reuse. 
 
The artist has combined different woods and laminated the thin leaves together to improve and upgrade the earlier Pill Box (1. Walnut and Lacewood, 2. Walnut, Lacewood, Burr Elm and Dyed Red Sycamore, 3. Walnut, Burr Maple and Lacewood, 4. Maple and Dyed Sycamore). 
 
The platform is made with Tulip Wood and Poplar and is based on the trays used in former days by physicians and pharmacists to count and dispense medications. The tablets are formed from laminated Wenge, Mahogany and Poplar – some dyed red and blue. The capsule shapes are formed of Ramin and Mahogany.  
 
7.5cm (H) x 29.5cm (W) x 21.1cm (D)  

Aside from working in a variety of Health and Social Care settings in Ireland and the U.K., Hugh Cummins developed a strong interest in the work of leading figures in the field of Design and Making.  Hugh joined the College of Furniture Design in London to learn how to use wood decoratively and to hone individual skills.   
 
John Makepeace was particularly influential, as was a summer course at his school in Parnham College under the tutelage of Robert Ingham. 
 
Hugh has developed a broad portfolio of work for individual clients and his work has been selected for the State’s Art Collection by the Office of Public Works.  Hugh has also had sculptural forms selected over a number of years for the Open Submission Annual Exhibitions of the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Royal Ulster Academy and Sculpture in Context. 
 
Hugh is currently represented by the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Denmark Street.  

www.hughcumminsdesigns.com  
Facebook: HughCumminsDesigns 
LinkedIn: hugh-cummins-6a12384a 

Climate change is real and is happening now.  

‘Watching the house burn down’ responds to the shock and horror of losing one's home in a bushfire.  Global warming has increased temperatures across the globe which is now a real threat to human habitats. This Summer we have seen temperatures rise across the Mediterranean and Asia. The piece depicts three people in Greece as they shelter in a clearing while their home and sanctuary is destroyed by fire. Trauma and tension etched into their faces; emotional shock their new reality.  

Irene O Neill is an artist whose work responds to the here and now, focusing on climate change. A mature yet emerging artist she graduated from NCAD in 2019. She is also a graduate of RHA's Atelier Diploma in Painting and Drawing. Based in Pallas Studios, Dublin 8,  O Neill works in various media mainly painting and drawing. Her work is colourful and monochromatic.  

A member of Creative Collective, she has exhibited in Ireland. Exhibitions include Artnet Dun Laoire, Ranelagh Arts, Sculpture in Context, Courthouse Gallery, Co. Clare;  Rua Red, and MISA. Digital exhibitions include CIACLA USA and Times Square New York with Artist Talk Magazine. Her work is held in private collections including St. Patrick's University Hospital.   

Awarded an agility award in 2022 by the Arts Council she is now working towards herfirst solo show to be held  in 2024.  Executed in pen and ink in stark monochromatic tines, the work is framed in an off black frame.  

Instagram @ireneoneillartist  

Medicine and histopathology/cellular pathology, on which medicine is broadly based, are scientific subjects. The practice of medicine and, in particular, that of cellular pathology is, however, also an art. For example, while looking at a tissue biopsy, with the obvious intention of making a diagnosis, pattern recognition is an important part of the conceptual process used.  

Most tissue sections are stained with haematoxylin (dark nucleus) and eosin (pink cytoplasm) and are predominantly pink or red. By a happy coincidence many beautiful images are randomly produced by the morphological features, some as a result of artefact and some the result of serendipity. These can resemble people, characters, nature, animals, activities and sometimes are reminiscent of works of art. Each picture has a story. The features can be subtle, are not always easy to discern and frequently unobserved. Hence, in my opinion, is art exemplified in pathology. This digital photomicrographic image entitled ‘The earth on fire from outer space’ reflects the subject as an art form. 

John D Coyne is a Consultant histopathologist, practicing from 1988 to present. 

johnnycoyne@doctors.org.uk  

The theme for this exhibition is a future world where coming generations may not enjoy the carefree childhood that we adults had growing up in the mid/late 20th century.  

The "new normal" of extreme weather events, food and water shortages and polluted air in many parts of the developing world are already putting millions of children at risk every day.  It is the children who will suffer most as they must adapt to living in a world which will grow ever more hostile over the next few decades. It is estimated that by the year 2100 the temperature of the planet could increase by 4 degrees Celsius if nothing is done to prevent this. 

Jutta Schoensiegel is a self-taught modern expressive portrait artist with a special interest in collage and mixed media. Using "throw-away" materials like junk mail leaflets, used paper envelopes and cuttings from old newspapers and magazines. Some influences draw on the early 20th century Dada movement, German Expressionism and Surreal Art.  

‘Step Lightly on this Earth’ considers the theme of climate and health and explores how everything in existence is connected; how all things come into being through relationships and interactions.   There is a growing, empathetic awareness of humans’ impact on Earth’s, life-sustaining biospheres, together with a shared, cultural desire to live more sustainably.  Conscious choices help to slow down, if not reverse, the impact we have had on Earth’s systems.   Prioritising what is best for our planet and its habitants will, no doubt, lead us to discover the best in ourselves. 
 
At a fundamental level, we humans share common desires to belong, to find purpose, to search for meaning, while navigating the world to which we are bound for life.  Our basic human need for connection reminds us of our interdependence, our shared vulnerability and our responsibility for stepping lightly on the earth which supports all life.   

Karen Ebbs studied at NCAD achieving first class honours degrees in both her Masters in Fine Art painting in 2023 and Bachelors in Fine Art painting in 2021. She was short-listed for the 2023 RDS Visual Arts Awards.  Karen is an alumnus of the RHA school and a recipient of funding from the Arts Council of Ireland and DLRD CoCo, 2022.  In 2021, she received the Clancy Quay Professional Development award.  
 
In 2022, Karen conceived, organised and co-hosted a series of talks – We Need to Talk About Painting – at IMMA and The Complex, and was invited by Joanna Laws to write for Visual Arts Newsletter, 2023. 
 
Karen had solo exhibitions at Farmleigh Cowshed Gallery, 2022 and at The Lab Gallery, curated by Sheena Barrett.  Earlier in 2022 at the Lab Gallery, Sheena Barrett and Karen co-curated a group show of seven female emerging artists, entitled New Beginnings. 

www.karenebbs.com  
Instagram @karen.ebbs/ 

This year, the artist gave over their front lawn to #NoMowMay. The Dandelion was the first to shine and go to seed.  As a painter she studied it, explored its importance, and its history.  The Dandelion seed-head harks back to her childhood, time spent with her Mom making wishes.  A time of innocence, and when anything was possible.  Our relationship with the landscape was different then; we were more connected to it and valued it more.  Fifty years later we stand on the cusp of something rather different, the impact of Climate Change is everywhere and every child is aware of it.  
 
The Great Survivor is a new approach for the artist on Climate Change, a digression from her previous work on this subject matter.   With ‘The Great Survivor’, her hope is to draw us in to discover the medicinal benefits and the environmental benefits of this unpretentious plant. 

Kaye Maahs is a native of Kerry who lives and works in the Burren, Co. Clare.  She graduated from the Atlantic Technological University Galway as a mature student in 2015 with a BA in Fine Art.  She has exhibited in the RHA Dublin, the RA London, Ballinglen Arts Foundation and Cairde Visual.  She was awarded an Agility Award in (2021), was a recipient of the Clare Artists Mentoring Scheme Glór 2020/Mentor Professor Una Sealy RHA and the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award in (2019). 
 
Her work is defined by daily observations and musings.  It is the residue of these moments that informs her paintings.  Paintings that are never made directly from life, instead they evolve naturally in the quiet moments within the studio.  The art of recall plays a vital part in Maahs' process, and it is the emotional that dictates the visual within her work.  

www.kayemaahs.com  

Twitter @Kaye_Maahs  
 
Instagram @kayemaahs  
 
LinkedIn Kaye Maahs

‘A gesture of rejection’ represents a type of art known as "memento mori," symbolically meditating on death and the impermanence of life. This painting pays homage to Clyfford Still's "PD-102" C. 1931. Still stripped-down details "to see what just the idea of an eye or an arm or a head might be. But by then it’s something else, of course, a whole new world, for which there are no words." Wanting the viewer to be caught off guard and made uneasy, believing that "these are not paintings in the usual sense; they are life and death merging in fearful union."  

‘A gesture of rejection’ serves as a reminder of the fragility of life evoking the brevity of existence. The global climate crisis also brings into focus the transient nature of the planet's equilibrium. The unsettling impact of the work parallels the urgency we feel in addressing these critical issues. 

Lee Welch creates gestural, atmospheric paintings that attest to the psychical and emotional depths of his chosen subjects and map out delicate negotiations between beauty, desire, and the painted image. Depicting figures from his own milieu, as well as from history, literature, music, and tennis, Welch finds feeling in that which he depicts, always rendered with the intensity of his particular humanism; a close looking akin to love. In each subject’s specificity, the artist reveals the universal feelings that connect us to each other, and that stretch from our present moment back through time.  

Born in Kentucky and based in Dublin, Welch’s work has been featured in numerous institutions including Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University; The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), León, Spain and Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp.  

www.leewelch.com 

https://www.instagram.com/_leewelch_/  

Trees are one of our most powerful weapons in the fight against climate change, capturing vast amounts of carbon, preventing flooding, and reducing air pollution. They play a vital role in maintaining biodiversity, with our native oak supporting more life than any other native species. 
Recent studies show that exposure to trees can also impact positively on our physical and mental health. Mortality rates, longevity, incidence of depression, anxiety, stress, cognitive decline, blood pressure, and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer are all improved by regularly spending time around trees. A recent study at Boston University records that having more trees in urban areas could have prevented up to 38,000 deaths over the last 20 years. 

Lelia Henry’s practice is drawing based, and she works mainly in charcoal and graphite. Her concern for the loss of the natural world drives her to create meticulously rendered drawings, through which, she asks the viewer to re-examine their connection to the ordinary, everyday aspects of our immediate environment.  

She has studied in Ireland, Florence, Paris and London, and holds an MA in Art and Process from Crawford College of Art. She has won a number of awards and bursaries, including the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award, and Arts Council Awards.  

In 2017, she won Irish Landscape Artist of the Year at the National Open Art Competition, London. She has had a number of solo shows, and has exhibited widely, both at home and abroad. Her work is held in both public and private collections, including the Office of Public Works. 

www.leliahenry.com  

Instagram @leliahenry/

Ghosts of the information warfare... They've already arrived in Europe, but elsewhere only their shadows are dancing. It is impossible to stop them because they penetrate walls, smartphones, newspapers, television. The subconscious processes them, reproduces them... even on the free walls of the house. Will they perhaps soon invade our physical reality and gain strength? Or do they continue to circle as disembodied ghosts? 

The film is based on watercolor works created by the author in the first days of the Ukraine war. 

Born 1981, Light Bear lives and works in Germany, Dresden 

1996 to 2000, State Regional Art College, music teacher flute 

2001 - 2003 studies at the University - Field of study: Art History 

​From 2013 to 2016 he created puppet animated films. 

Since 2016 created video art: animated films based on original graphics and paintings. 

​Since 2012, his work has been included in more than 500 international art and film-festivals. 

@light_bear_art 

The link between climate change and mental distress is the subject of a growing body of research in the medical world. Our young people, in particular, are experiencing feelings of depression, anxiety and a sense of helplessness. However, we now see medical professionals, government bodies and the general public coming together to find solutions. There is hope at the end of the tunnel and in ‘The Light of Hope’, we see the fires of uncertainty giving way to a symbol of hope. The artist used the daisy to personify this. Its original name was Day’s Eye. It remains closed in darkness and opens to the light of a new dawn.  

Lilian Choo is a contemporary/abstract landscape and seascape artist living and working in Dublin. She is originally from county Clare and attributes her love of the landscape to her proximity to the Wild Atlantic Way in her youth. Moody mist covered hills and wild, powerful seas fill her canvasses. She strives to give the viewer the feeling of being in the landscape in a given moment in time she works in oils on large canvasses.   

choo.lilian1@gmail.com  

Around us the world is changing, ‘Beach gone!’ is influenced by the way the sea is slowly encroaching on the artist’s local beach, Rosslare, and the way climate change is affecting her personally. 
 
50 cm Mixed Media, the base of the painting is a repurposed occasional table top, and uses resin, acrylic paint, sand and sea glass from Rosslare beach.

Marianne Brennan graduated as a mature student with a degree in Contemporary Art from Carlow IT, Wexford Campus, 2011.  
She has a background in quiltmaking, and developed an interest in Fiber Art which inadvertently led to sculpture and Art Dolls. 
After exploring other mediums during Covid, among them acrylic painting, watercolours, she discovered Resin painting, drawn to the process and the unpredictable end result. 

Marianne’s work is represented by The Rosslare Gallery. 

Email: Mariannekbrennan@gmail.com  

This painting explores ritual grief practices at holy wells. Weathered religious statuary take on a subversive air when juxtaposed with modern devotional objects.   

The child's toy car- a replica of a luxury fossil fuel guzzler and symbol of capitalist consumerism- is inverted in the holy water font of the Child of Prague. Who left it there? For what intercession? Was there healing, or the tragic loss of a child?      

The modern visitor to the well leaves whatever they have with them; hair ties, bracelets, photos, children’s toys, choking the weathered religious statues with silent, voiceless entreaties. These tokens represent the commonality of grief and the ritualistic hope for transformation.   

The title, 'Spoiler Alert' hints that in the face of Climate Breakdown through blind corporate and governmental policy, it can feel like prayer is all we have.

Mary Fahy’s current series of oil paintings inspired by Brigid’s Well in Liscannor, explores themes of presence/absence, grief, love and loss.   
 
Recent exhibitions: 2023: ‘Bullaí (Buoys) outdoor exhibition on Inis Óirr, Mermaid Arts Centre, Linenhall Arts Centre, RUA Red ‘Displacement and Belonging - Home’. ‘Dabhach Bhríde’ with Frances Bermingham at the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, the Clare Museum and Áras Éanna, Inis Oírr.   
2022: ‘Equilibrium’ Linenhall Arts Centre; ‘Stretched-The Art of Motherhood’, People’s Museum, Limerick; 'Points of Perspective' Artlinks Fort Dunree.   
 
Pre-selected for RUA 2022 and RHA 2023, shortlisted for Pallas Studios PP/S Artist-Initiated Programme 2023.  Mary was awarded a Glór Artist Mentorship with Vera Klute in 2022. 2023 mentorship with Laura Angell, supported by JCT and the DCCI.  Clare Arts Office Bursary winner 2023 - Cowhouse Studios Residency, Wexford.   
 
@maryfahyart 

www.maryfahyartist.com 

Inspired by the images of refugee camps that flood our newsfeeds, ‘Between Two Lands’ seeks to portray the reality of life for arriving migrants; the endless queues for healthcare and shelter, the unsettling skies. Homeless and far from home, they are neither there nor here; in every sense, Between Two Lands.  

Michelene Huggard is a visual artist living and working in Dublin. She graduated in 2018 from NCAD with an Hons. Degree in Fine Art (Paint). Her work in the NCAD Graduate show was long listed for the RDS Emerging Artist Award. 

Her work has been included in group exhibitions. She held her first solo show 'InTransit'  in Dun Laoghaire in November 2022.  

Currently her work focuses on the mass movement of people across the globe caused by war, famine and extreme climactic conditions, and seeks to explore the reaction of host countries to these refugees, as well as the question of what kind of society such forced mass migration creates.  

www.miehuggard.com  

Instagram: @michelenehuggard 

‘Sui Generis’ (One of a kind) is an oil painting of Earth as a cartogram charting Human behaviour, with a working QR code linked to a recorded view of Planet Earth from the International Space Station.  
 
Myra Jago’s oil paintings examine our relationship with the world and each other. Her work uses 
beauty to open up a conversation on current social, political and identity issues. Embedding these 
themes within folds of silk, she leans heavily on the still life tradition while remaining rooted within 
the contemporary art world. Seeking an intuitive response, she employs symmetry as a constant motif throughout her practice, using mirroring to reveal an underside and alternate viewpoint.  
 
Jago’s process goes through many stages of designing the silk, printing, arranging on reflective surfaces, photographing and digitally editing the image, preparing the canvas surface by layering with ground and sanding, and ultimately painting her subject in oils. 

Myra Jago is an Irish oil painter, holding a BFA (Hons) & MFA, (NCAD 2011). She has partaken in the past ten RHA Annuals. In 2023, she made new works for Lavit Gallery’s ‘Into The Weave’ and The Mermaid Gallery’s ‘Twenty One’. 
 
In 2022 as an invited artist, Jago won The RHA Annual Friends Award and produced large works for Breaking Borders at Luan Gallery Athlone. ’Scáthán’ was shortlisted for The An Post Saorstát Stamp Competition (2021) and acquired by Business to Arts. She held her 3rd solo exhibition, Now Islands, at The RHA Ashford Gallery in 2019. In 2017, Jago won Highly Commended at The NGI Hennessy Portrait Prize and in 2015, a six-month studio residency at the RHA School.  
 
Collections: Deloitte, Central Bank, OPW, Killeen Group Holdings, Activate Capital, Scor Global, Kildare County Council, Hotel Bloom Belgium, Green8 Tokyo, N.I. Civil Service, Business to Arts & private collections.  

www.myrajago.com 

www.instagram.com/myra.jago  

‘Mercuria’ is a reflective sculpture. A physical manifestation of extreme heat through the firing process on porcelain and wire. This creative process is mirrored through the lens of climate change,  revealing the impact of fire and creating dramatic physical distortions on skeletal remains.  

Orla Kaminska is an Irish-born ceramic artist and designer who graduated from NCAD in 1987. 
Orla's varied portfolio demonstrates public architectural projects and experimental studio work, which are separate but interconnected parts of her practice. 
 
Orla's experience in public artworks includes large-scale architectural installations and sculptures found nationwide, which include: The Ark Temple Bar 1999/2021; OPW -Government Buildings (1991) /Dublin Castle(1995) /An Garda Siochana Kilmainham (2022)/The National Forensic Centre (2022). 
 
Orla's ongoing practice in creating one-off studio artworks focuses on sculptures inspired by extremes in climate change alongside autumn and winter cycles of plant forms and where themes of decomposition are explored using fine wire and porcelain to create translucent skeletal structures.  

Recent exhibitions include' Winter Light, 'The Ark Temple Bar(2021) and 'Ghost Blooms' at Sculpture in Context in the National Botanic Gardens(Sept 2023).   

www.orlakaminska.com  
Instagram - @orla.kaminska 

‘Bewildered’ was inspired after observing a green electronic board from a television  
that was gutted at home. During a period of introspection and self-analysis, the artist realised how electronic devises affect our state of mind and vibes, therefore our physical state. Even after being switched off, all the electronic devises leave a residual charged-with-electrons atmosphere that never stop; stillness is gone, peace is altered. We’re surrounded by cables and waves ... Permanent artificial noise disturbing the nature of human peaceful quietness when resting. How is that affecting on a large scale the climate, our environment? The health of humans and the whole planet? All those questions lead me to feel bewildered, and so the fact that we’re in a digital era, far from our natural origins.  

Raquel Montero Calero is a multidisciplinary artist originally from Cordoba, Spain. Currently based in Co. Cavan.  

Her pieces of art are mainly inspired by people, historical events, emotions, anatomy. Art is beyond trend, art is an excellent educational tool, art is therapy, art is freedom. 
Currently carrying out research about the Irish involved in the Spanish Civil War and the impact the latter had in the art scene in Spain.  

www.instagram.com/visceralartstudio/  
visceralartstudio21@gmail.com 

Aftermath of bog fire #1 was taken on the the fringes of a bog fire, near Mucklon, County Kildare, Ireland. Archival pigment print under anti-reflective museum glass. Edition 2 of 7. 

This piece is from a miniseries entitled ‘Bealtaine’ which forms part of the artist’s ongoing photographic series ‘Beneath | Beofhód’ (2018-present). Themes explored within ‘Bealtaine’ include time, spirituality, change, ritual and fragility.  

Shane Hynan has visited a number of fire outbreaks on bogs, in the Irish midlands, exploring the fringes and aftermath, which he describes as rich with metaphor and meaning. Lingering in the smoke and charred landscape, he often contemplates the altered sense of place as a threshold to an older time; where the rituals of our ancestors echo on the wispy smoke. Maybe they’re trying to say something else? 

Bealtaine deriving from ‘bel taine’ means ‘bright fire’ or ‘mouth of the fire’. It corresponds to the Celtic festival Bealtaine which celebrates the beginning of Summer. Bonfires were lit at important landmarks and the flames, smoke and ashes were revered for their special protective powers.  

Shane Hynan is a full-time photographer and visual artist based in Kildare. He works primarily with photography but experiments with sound, video, collage, text and sculpture. His practice draws upon conceptual and documentary photographic approaches and focuses on rural Ireland, bogs and the built environment. 

The use of photography as a tool of expression, drawing on an emotional and intuitive connection with landscape and topography, is a central concern within his work. The metaphorical exploration of place and space underpins his visual enquiry and acts as a significant subtext throughout his practice. 

He has exhibited widely in Ireland and internationally in China, Germany and the UK. He received a Visual Arts Bursary Award from the Arts Council in 2020 and 2022 and is a finalist in the upcoming 2023 Association of Photographers Open awards.  

www.shanehynan.ie 

@shanehynan  

Around the world, our lands are being burned more frequently and severely by wildfires. Long-term impacts are associated with mental health disorders, respiratory and cardiovascular complications, stroke, dementia, death from heart disease, pre-term births, shorter height in children and poorer overall health.  
 
The smoke-affected air quality, a mix of gases and fine particle matter, (PM 2.5) - 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, travels further, affecting all living life. Exposure to wildfire smoke can move deeply into the lungs and bloodstream of many. These health issues can last over several years.

To understand Solastalgia, to move to envision and act for a better world a global shift towards understanding and education through SDG4 of the UN Sustainability Development Goals needs to be embraced. Together, we can address the ecological emergency, and empower change for a better future creating a more positive way of living for mental health and wellbeing.

Sinéad Cleary’s appreciation for the world stems from her work as a visual artist. The breath we take, the land we walk on, and the view we see are never taken for granted. The gift of seeing through connection, nothing being separate, forms a deeper understanding of life and all that it holds. Our culture’s spiritual and ethical renewal, which challenges us to stand back and perceive reality differently, is crucial for the future of art. Through mindfulness, indigenous wisdom and connection, we can observe all species, all life, all nature, the people, and the culture of all. It is the many wonders of life. Her artworks reflect this connection. 
 
In addition to being a member of VAI, Create, and ArtNetDLR, Sinéad is also an experimental artist and photographer. Sinéad aims to comprehend intertwined larger patterns and uncover new languages of hope for a better world, where barriers can be removed and positive sustainable change occurs.  

The artist’s work reflects a direct emotional response to her environment, an immediate contact driven response to the landscape through which she walks. 

Currently, she is fascinated with this tall group of trees, how they connect with each other and how they unite to present a symbol of shelter and protection. 

After making small drawings in her notebook, she returns to the studio to work larger scale on heavy fabriano paper, building up layers of charcoal with light and dark texture, enhanced with Indian ink and punctuated with small sparkles of bright colour pastel. 

These trees provide infinite possibilities to try and capture what she sees and feels when in their presence. 

Sorca O’ Farrell is a landscape artist from Howth, Co. Dublin. 
She studied in D.L.S.A.D, where she received a Diploma in Fine Art, followed by an honours degree in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), and a H. Dip, with distinction. 
 
Her work is represented in the public art collections of; The National Gallery of Ireland, the Allied Irish Bank Collection, The Office of Public Works, Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council, The Department of Transport Northern Ireland, along with many private collections both in Ireland and overseas. 

Awards include the Drawing Prize at the Royal Ulster Academy, the Cairde Visual/Hamilton Gallery award, the Fingal Council ‘graphics studio’ award. Her work has been included in the exhibition ‘A Celebration of Drawing’ at the National Gallery of Ireland. She has also exhibited at many Royal Hibernian Academy’s (RHA) annual exhibition’s, The Royal Ulster Academy (RUA), and many other group and solo shows.  

www.sorcaofarrell.ie  
instagram.com/sorcaofarrell/ 

Like a systemic disease, climate breakdown exploits existing vulnerabilities; its prime agent – pollution in all its forms – travels through the weave of our habitats and ourselves, and alters our core, weakening our internal responses to its own external effects.  

Yet, when mankind attempts to restore and protect habitats, or amend its habits, healthier surrounds prove more resilient and, in turn, improve health outcomes; preventative and lifestyle medicine result in a healthier body and often entail daily changes that reduce our footprint.  

The artist represents this dance of opposites with two different interventions: botanical eco-printing and dyes are applied first, then overpainted with iron sulphate and black pastels. The further intervention with embroidery in green cotton thread partly overwrites the darkness and corrals unsullied areas in a protective ring.   

Ultimately this is a dance of disruption and reparation; which one will eventually overcome is a matter of interpretation.  

Stefania Oggioni is an Italian artist living in Westmeath. She works in watercolour, pastels, print, and sculpture, and often focusses on the natural world for her subjects. Her search for the reduction of the environmental impact of her work has led to the discovery of the possibilities of eco-printing and botanical dyeing, and this is sending her practice in new directions. After all, if one carries the same surname as a pupil of Da Vinci, she may as well experiment like him. 

The artist delves into the interplay between flowers ensconced in a jar and the essence of human existence. Stripped to their core, these blossoms transcend their natural allure, transforming into metaphorical portraits that encapsulate our very essence. 

This floral metaphor poignantly reflects the fragility and resilience of our planet's ecosystems. Like fragile petals, our environment succumbs to the impacts of changing climates, experiencing the birth pains of rising temperatures and unpredictable weather events. 

The transparent glass boundaries we construct serve as both shelter and reminder, illustrating how our life choices cast shadows of our existence onto future generations. ‘Flowers in jar (no2)’ challenges the notion of control, revealing the inherent unpredictability of existence and its inevitable decay.  Forces shaping our climate directly impact our well-being. From this, true appreciation of beauty emerges, for if we can cherish it, we can protect it, fostering a profound connection between art, nature, and human responsibility. 

Stephen Johnston was born in 1987 in Co. Antrim, Ireland. In 2010 he graduated with a BA in Fine and Applied Arts from University of Ulster in Belfast. 

Johnston has enjoyed early success in his career winning various awards including; The De Veres Art Award, The Towry Award- best from Northern Ireland at the NOAC and The KPMG Young Artist Award. Johnston paints full time from his studio in Ireland. He has exhibited work in Belfast, Dublin, London, including the Saatchi Gallery, Paris and Australia. Johnston also often exhibits at various international open Academy exhibitions, competition and group shows. 
​ 
Johnston’s work is held in numerous private art collections around the world. He has been awarded the SIAP Award and had work acquired publicly by the Northern Ireland Arts Council. Johnston has also completed portraits and commission for Queens University, Belfast City Council and The Ulster Museum of Northern Ireland. 

www.stephen-johnston.co.uk  
 
Insta @observantpainter 

One of the aspects of climate change on human health is its impacts on sources of airborne allergens and the resulting impacts in allergic respiratory diseases. 
 
The work consists of a bronze votive object referring to the centuries old tradition of placing representations of body parts on altars in the hope of cure. These were often made of wax and this piece has been cast using the lost wax method.  The object also resembles a tree and a piece of coral, both of which help the planet breathe by turning carbon dioxide into pure oxygen. 
 
The votive object has been placed on a slice of timber from a fallen native tree referring to both the destruction of nature through climate change and the adverse effects of deforestation leading to increased areas of barren ecosystems referred to by the bell jar encasing the work. 

Susan Madert studied at Bath Academy of Art and Goldsmiths College, University of London. She now lives in Dublin and has taken part in many group exhibitions in Ireland, most recently at the Signal Arts Centre, the RHA and Rua Red. She has had solo exhibitions this year at Rua Red and Athlone Civic Centre. 

‘Where will we live now?’ reflects the effect that decades of consumerism has had on our planet.  

Using advertising images from the 1950's, a time which heralded a drive to convince us that if we bought more "stuff" then our lives would be ideal. This insatiable appetite for goods and services has led to increased carbon emmisions, waste, pollution, and deforestation with a detrimental role in accelerating global warming and climate change.   

We have already witnessed forest fires ,flooding and devastation across the globe and what the future generations will face does not bode well. 

‘Where will we live now?’  is a fear filled question from an innocent child who cannot comprehend why the earth is being destroyed by the greed and recklessness of present and previous generations.   

Therese Duffy is a visual artist living in Swinford Co. Mayo. She works in oils, acrylics and mixed media. She graduated from ATU Castlebar Campusv (formerly GMIT)in 2007 with a BA in Fine Art. 

Her work is an instinctive response to a memory,a conversation, or an intangible or imagined atmosphere within a space. 

Recent Selected Group Exhibitions include: Forhalla  Linenhall Arts Centre Castlebar 2023,  
Mayo Artists Exhibition 2022 2021/2019/ 2017, Linenhall Art Centre Castlebar Co Mayo "Change Links Four Women"2010, Education Centre Castlebar Co Mayo 

Current Collections at Mayo University Hospital and Galway University Hospital.  

Private Collections in Ireland, Australia, USA. 

Instagram @thereseduffy10 

Connected and detached, we hang on the precipice of immense climate change, faced with the urgency of what we must do now…and ultimately how.      

‘Global Systemic’ utilises painting, through the private lens of trauma, to examine the experience of climate change, and attempts to empathise with the feelings of a planet in distress. The work evolves out of a two looped movement on frayed canvas and changes continually in response to external stimuli such as birdsong, light, temperature as well the internal impulses of  thought, emotion, and feeling. Through this process the work examines the visceral experience of perpetual change and approaches planetary health as inextricably linked to our own collective and individual wellbeing. ‘Global Systemic’ examines the multiple and entangled systems that have created the planetary crises and attempts to confront the need for and absence of collaborative approaches to climate justice and equality.  This is a social commentary of the systemic failures that have resulted in wide-spread degradation of ecosystems, and an attempt to salvage beauty from the messes we have made. 
 
The work becomes synthesis of society observing itself from above, responding to changing external stimuli in an ever-evolving process of complex and perpetual change. Reflective of the  Berkana two loop model of System Change. 

Thérèse Murphy is a visual artist and facilitator based in rural South East Galway. Primarily a painter, her work is multi-disciplinary in its practice and explores themes of climate change and social justice through the private lens of family, bodily trauma and illness. Her work utilises the human experience of change and degradation to empathise with a planet in distress and utilises material itself as a way to examine how, why and what we use as central to self and societal understanding. Painting becomes a way to reflect on global events and to understand a sense of place and voice in a highly connected, rapidly changing and fragmented world. Contemporary landscape painting becomes a type of social commentary, in which to observe human relationships to the multi layered landscapes we inhabit and inherit.  

Instagram: @theresemurphyartist 
 
Facebook: @ThereseMurphyVisualArt   

gratitude.therese@gmail.com   

This handwoven Irish tapestry, ‘Timelines On The Edge’, measuring 2m x 2m, is akin to a physical representation of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland’s statement that: “Climate breakdown and human health are highly interwoven.”  

Completed in August 2021, ‘Timelines On The Edge’ was inspired by the collective sense of members of the Timelines Tapestry Group, a self-organised group of independent Irish tapestry weavers, that the health of our planet is ‘off kilter,’ hanging in the balance. Using the visual device of combining ‘line’ sections depicting seven members’ specific climate concerns into one cohesive whole of a globe knocked off balance, our tapestry acknowledges, resonates and connects with a shared, inherent but often unspoken, sense of climate anxiety.  

We are a unique self-assembled, self-organising and self-driving collaboration of Irish tapestry weavers, the Timelines tapestry group; Muriel Beckett, Tish Caniffe, Pascale de Connick, Frances Crowe, Lorna Donlon, Terry Dunne, Frances Leech, Catherine Ryan and Heather Underwood.  

‘Timelines On The Edge’ is the groups second large collaborative tapestry and was several years in the making. Each artist brings a wealth of individual knowledge and experience to the group. Together they have created a tapestry of size and imagery which none would, or could, have created as individuals.   

https://www.facebook.com/timelinestapestry/ 

This mobile mural has been created using doodles and development drawings from participants' climate anxiety notebooks. Each stage of the mural tells a unique story centred around pressing environmental issues such as air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, and excessive consumption. These murals collectively address both local and global concerns. The four classical elements—air, water, fire, and earth—play a significant role in shaping the narrative within each mural. Furthermore, each stage features an endangered Irish animal that symbolises the challenges faced by wildlife in these contexts. 

In the air stage, attention is drawn to major countries and corporations responsible for air pollution, with a focus on the orange butterfly as a key symbol. The water stage highlights the key players in the overfishing industry, portraying the problem of plastic pollution and the overfarming of wild Irish salmon. The earth stage sheds light on those contributing to global deforestation, revealing how human necessities like money and paper harm our forests and their inhabitants, such as the golden eagle. Finally, the fire stage presents the old Irish goat alongside fast fashion chains and popular global products, emphasizing the issue of overconsumption. 

This program serves as a powerful depiction of contemporary sustainability challenges, aiming to raise awareness among viewers and inspire conscious environmental action. 

Tom is an illustrator, community artist, writer and educator working between the fields of development education and social art practice. Trained as an adult educator, youth practitioner, and a local and global advocate leader for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The work primarily deals with themes of over consumption, the environment and educational injustice, striving to create digital and physical experiences that enlighten individuals to be socially aware about significant societal and cultural challenges facing humanity. Through problem solving and creative thinking, Tomʼs combined artistic and educational practice promotes mindful consumerism with Eco-activism, and social justice through educational equality. 

www.tomnooneart.com  

Planted as far back as 1900, the Ash at the Rotunda Hospital, has been a constant witness to the changing landscape.  
Observing the Ash over the past 40 years, ‘The Rotunda Ash’ is an homage to street trees, in gratitude for their reassurance and for the way they lift the artist’s heart. In light of the changing climate, the piece acknowledges how trees quietly mitigate heat, rain, storms, pollution, and noise while they contribute to the health of all who live in their environment. 

The leaves are printed from those gathered by the artist in the previous Autumn. Gold leaf creates a glow behind them. The watercolour silhouette includes a map linking the city centre to the fields beyond, like roots and branches linking our human environment with the nature which sustains us.  

May this tree grace the street for several more generations and engender a love and respect for street trees. 

Yanny Petters has been painting detailed portraits of wild plants since the 1990s. She specialises in 'painting on glass', a technique she has been developing since her training as a signwriter. The purpose of her work is to raise awareness of the wonders of nature and especially the wild plants of Ireland. 

Her paintings are in a number of important collections including the Shirley Sherwood Collection at Kew Gardens, London, the Office of Public Works State Collection, & the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin. One of her works was acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland in 2020. Her sculpture, 'Hand Fan for Habitats' was acquired by the National Museum of Ireland in 2021. 

She is a member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists, the Water Colour Society of Ireland and the Dublin Painting & Sketching Club.  

Yanny is represented by the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Great Denmark Street, Dublin     

www.yannypetters.net  
www.oliviercornetgallery.com