Thursday, September 18, 2008
Today after what may be my final walk as a resident of Portobello before I change home, I arrived home to a man sleeping on my doorstep. I woke him and let him know I needed to enter my house. He was slightly confused having been woken from his fifty winks. He seemed very embarrassed and uncomfortable about the situation. He apologized several times to me and moved on slowly.
Homeless people are ignored in Dublin city - what is so invisible about homeless people? We should rise to the responsibility of interacting with them. I was in San Francisco recently and couldn't but notice the amount of social and relaxed interaction between working folk and homeless people. This interaction, that is sadly amiss in Dublin city, must help all citizens gain a sense of belonging and place in their city, as well as a deeper understanding and respect for the layered society of their city.
Here's some interesting homeless signs from a Toronto based project.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Listening to Words
Francis Bacons' voice reminds me too much of mindless days sitting at his reconstructed studio while working in the Hugh Lane Gallery. Melvyn Braggs' interview on a loop became the background track to my wandering thoughts on the job. However, here's one I heard recently and I must quote.
Bacon : "I am genuinely pleased that those people don't like them...I much more pleased when they really hate them than when they like them, after-all it means that there might be something there."
Sitting by my own work anonymously recently, I observed some reactions to my installation piece on exhibition. I realized that I got a good kick out of those who did not like the piece and outwardly expressed their dislike. I found these stronger, more instant reactions caused greater satisfaction for me. This is strange because I usually make work that is aesthetically pleasing and to my liking rather than disliking. Perhaps Bacon enjoyed the negative attention his work received while he was alive because through it he received something openly genuine and true from the public. I wonder if Bacon only felt a work was complete when it was satisfactorily ugly or shocking enough to receive some passionate and genuine reactions.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Portfolio Course 2008

I recently finished teaching an intensive two-week portfolio course with nine second level art college hopefuls. It was a really enjoyable two weeks. It was good to work with students who are enthusiastic and have creative minds. Some samples of the students work created during the course can be seen here.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Viewing Art

Simple and straight forward, this little monoprint by Lisa Wharton reminded me of some ideas which drive my own work. Some more of her stuff here.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Viewing Art - Anya Gallaccio in Kinsale

Simple ideas make perceptive art and astute design. Anya Gallaccio transforms Charles Fort in Kinsale by bringing harmonious visual contrast to the historic site using coloured glass. The uncomplicated windows capture changing sunlight and cast alluring shafts of luminous light throughout the wartime site.
Listening to words
"When the gentleness between you hardens and you fall out of belonging with each other, may the depths that you have reached hold you still."
John O Donoghue
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Listening to Lyrics
Gonna rise up, find my direction magnetically.... turning mistakes into gold.
Rise, by Eddie Vedder
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Viewing Art - Galway Arts Festival

Max Streichers moving human stuctures are cleverly designed complex skin suits which become gigantic inflatable sculptures.

Visible Darkness is an impressive group show in which intricate drawings and highly skilled sculptural work convey ideas using decorative pattern with a refreshingly dark and Gothic angle.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Listening to words
"The relationship between the public and the artist is complex and difficult to explain. There is a fine line between using this critical energy creatively and pandering to it."
Andy Goldsworthy
Listening to Words
"I think we misread the landscape as something pretty when really there is a much darker side to it."
Andy Goldsworthy
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Friday, May 02, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Friday, April 04, 2008
Yeah ! - my main website has been upgraded - it is shiny and new thanks to thougthwaxs' patience and immense generosity. It will feature information on my practice and this time it will be regularly updated.
Do check it out - www.paulahenihan.com
Do check it out - www.paulahenihan.com
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Listening to Lyrics
Balance, Repetition
Composition, Mirrors
most of all the world is a place
where parts of wholes are described
within an overarching paradigm of clarity
and accuracy
the context of which makes possible
an underlying sense of the way it all fits together
despite our collective tendency not to conceive of it as such
The Books - Lost and Safe / Smells like Content
Composition, Mirrors
most of all the world is a place
where parts of wholes are described
within an overarching paradigm of clarity
and accuracy
the context of which makes possible
an underlying sense of the way it all fits together
despite our collective tendency not to conceive of it as such
The Books - Lost and Safe / Smells like Content
New Solo Exhibition - 'Pith'

Publish Post
My next solo exhibition titled Pith opens on the 1st April in Clotworthy Art Centre in Antrim town. It runs until the 2nd May. The exhibition includes prints and sculptural work made over the last two years.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Listening to Words
"When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens you. Your forgotten or neglected inner wealth begins to reveal itself."
John O Donoghue
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Friday, January 04, 2008
Viewing Art - Vanessa Donoso Lopéz at RHA

The Ashford Gallery in RHA, Dublin hosts a collection of weird and wonderful pieces by Vanessa Donoso Lopéz. Lopez has created a kind of fantastical living room with rich wallpaper decorating the space. Antique furniture is laden down with moving sculptures and found objects. Several teacups display dancing dolls while wax creatures sprout colourful growths from their heads and ticking butterflies are agitated by warped time. Apart from a failed assembly of paint tins and magnetic fish, which in my opinion the show could have done without, I found myself admiring Lopéz’ keen aesthetics and courageous execution.
Image: Vanessa Donoso Lopéz
Monday, August 13, 2007
Monday, December 04, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Friday, April 28, 2006
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Your Grand Enterprise

"Sometimes one is tempted to think that if you wanted us to behave like lilies of the field you might have given us an organisation more like theirs. But that, I suppose is just your grand experiment. Or no - not an experiment, for you have no need to find things out. Rather your grand enterprise. To make an organism which is also a spirit - to make that terrible oxymoron, a "spiritual animal". To take a poor primate, a beast with nerve endings all over it, a creature with a stomach that wants to be filed, a breeding animal that wants its mate"
C.S. Lewis
Like my Lino Print? - very indigenous!































