Cork Literary Review, 2017
In 2017 I was commissioned to make artworks for the cover and interior of The Cork Literary Review published by Bradshaw Books.
Máire Bradshaw has an extraordinary face. I started by working backwards, rubbing out to discover the shapes of her face rather than trying to mark them out on the paper: a process of discovery rather than a laying down of something new. By the time I got to know her face better I could work quickly, finding different facets, phases and ages. By only partially revealing these faces, I have left room for the viewer to suggest aspects of their own. In her face I find an unusual intensity, maybe a defiance? Maybe naïvety too. I could have gone on and on.
Orla O’Byrne, whose variations on an image of Máire Bradshaw appear on the cover and in the preliminary section of this book.