Hi I'm Catherine and I'm.... an artist/designer/photographer/maker.... all round creative soul - currently based in Co. Donegal. I live on the wonderful Wild Atlantic Way in a small village called Downings.
The idea of writing this blog has been ruminating around my head for a while now but I've finally took it off the long finger (although I can hear the eyerolls and the "not another blog from a millennial") and I started typing. Through the blog I hope to share with you some of my creativity, what inspires me and hopefully connect with like minded people - who knows what may become of it!
So here we go...
I set up my website a few months ago now as a platform, a (new) starting point for me as an artist. Truth be told, it's not quite where I would like it to be - not just yet anyway - but that's ok #progressnotperfection, I'm sowing the seeds - sorta speak.
I've spent the majority of my work life in the food and beverage industry and used my creative skills there. It's an area of inspiration I feel I will cover in future posts. I love food and even began growing my own last year!
As my bio says I was born in Warwickshire, England and emigrated to the Co. Donegal coast in 1999. I've also lived in Co. Galway, Co. Offaly and Co. Kildare... so yeah my accent, vocab can be quite the amalgamation sometimes! But ah sure that's grand!
I studied fine art, specialising in ceramics at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technologies Centre for Creative Arts & Media and graduated in 2014. I loved exploring in clay and all its tactile possibilities and conceptual ones too. I long to return to it in the future but I also realise I've been trying to work out how to do that ever since leaving college! I guess I've just haven't discovered a way to do it just yet. I've been exploring more accessible mediums, especially paint and photography.
In 2020, after living in between the lovely counties of Offaly and Kildare - ever since finishing college - and had made it my home for several years, I returned to the wild North-West. It was in the midst of the pandemic and without getting too personal it was a very tough decision to have to make but the best one given the circumstances. Life has a funny way of rerouting you!
Putting all the uncertainty aside I focused my attention on my art and on completing a course I had started when I had been furloughed from my then job as a café deli supervisor/assistant manager (which I enjoyed and met some of the best people!) I completed the graphic design course, becoming an adobe certified associate in Graphic Design & Illustration.
As luck would have it a new job was around the corner (or just down the road) and I joined the family team at Pixalili. Discovering new skills and utilising old ones, my job focuses on sublimation printing, product development and assisting artists transfer their artwork onto textiles and even exploring my own art in textiles. It's a bit of dream combination!
So that's me for now I think, a lil' insight to where I am.
Thank you for having a read.
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