​Baba Yaga 1

Materials: Linen, alpaca felt, thread

Dimensions: 25x30cm

Not for sale

Baba Yaga was a sorceress in old Russian fairy tales. She is thought to have been a nature/fertility/death goddess at one point. She is fierce and dangerous but helps those who seek enlightenment if they are brave enough to face her.

My work is very insular and reflective. I use symbols and mythologies and archetypes in my pictures and drawings to make sense of the various struggles in my psyche. I find it helps me understand myself and my place in the world around me. I invent characters and create stories to act out my inner battles much like fairy stories are really allegories of our darker selves and are windows to the growth of individuality and process of responsibility we all must take in our lives.

I have always been drawn to traditional shamanic arts, they speak in another language of timelessness and possibility that we have forgotten how to listen to. Fairy stories are part of this tradition as they have always reflected the magical subconscious and society's connection to its myth and its connection to the spirit world. I access this world for my art and use its symbols and characters to tell my own stories.

My artwork has always been influenced by a craft aesthetic. Growing up my mother taught us all to knit and sew and crochet. I went to NCAD for three years of textile design and for years after that made freestyle machine-embroidery pieces for framing and for wearing, exhibiting in Ireland and at quilt/textile art shows abroad. I graduated from GMIT with a B.A. in fine art painting and design.