I am a graphic designer and printmaker who specialises in letterpress. I design and print my own work, in particular book arts, and enjoy collaborating with other artists, writers and designers to bring their ideas to life. I am a member of Graphic Studio Dublin and I teach evening and summer courses in Distillers Press, the letterpress print workshop in the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, where I also had the pleasure of being Designer in Residence 2012 – 2013. I print small editions of books and prints at my own workshop under the imprint The Belgrave Private Press.
A little more background…
In 2011 I completed an MA in Visual Communication in NCAD through letterpress and combined it with other print techniques to produce a limited edition book ‘Night Prayer’. The book went on to win Book and Print of the Year at the Irish Print Awards and I was awarded the IDI Graduate Award in the Masters Category. Following this I was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci grant and spent three months with Hand & Eye Letterpress in London. Upon returning to Dublin I began teaching the summer and evening courses in Distillers Press in NCAD. Later that year I joined Distillers Press for a year as Designer in Residence. This was a great opportunity to work with Sean Sills who has run the press for 30 years. I assisted in the day to day running of the press, worked with the Visual Communication students and collaborated with visitors to the press. In 2012 I joined Graphic Studio Dublin and I have taken part in the group shows Sketchbooks, Strumpet City and A Natural Selection. In October of 2013 I finished printing a limited edition book ‘Eveline‘ – one of the short stories from James Joyce’s Dubliners and launched it at the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair in early November.
In 2013 I collaborated with Fighting Words and the National Print Museum to work with ten young people to produce a book of their poetry. The group completed their poems in Fighting Words and joined me at the Print Museum every week to set their words in metal type and cut an accompanying illustration in lino. They were a lovely group and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them. The finished book was launched in January of 2014 and is available from Fighting Words and the National Print Museum.
In January 2014 I undertook a residency in Belfast Print Workshop where I spent some time etching and screenprinting and producing a small body of work for an exhibition there in March. You can read more about the exhibition here: Wild Flowers from Nature