Street Art And Mural Work

I have always painted on walls, when I was twelve I painted my murals on my bedroom walls, at first I painted picture book styles and landscapes with animals. Later I was big into Manga and when I was fourteen I repainted my walls with larger than life anime, characters like Shadow Lady and Lum in the Sun, painting murals is something I have always dabbled in. While I was in college I spent my summers painting huge backdrops as décor for local music festivals, I loved the scale, many of these pieces were in florescent colours that reacted to ultra violet light, which continues to be a fascination to me.

In 2012 my friend Kathrina Rupit (Kin MX) a fellow artist asked me to paint at her event ‘Graff House’ at ‘The Chocolate Factory’ in Kings Inns Street, Dublin. I had never painted live before, it was an new experience to be part of a painting event like this. It was an inside event and because of this all of the street artists/graffiti artists were using paintbrushes, a few had come earlier in the day to get some spray-paint down, but all of the live part of the event was with paintbrushes and that suited me fine! As I had never used spray-paint confidently before. I met many wonderful artists who took part and I felt a real sense of community among them, it was so much fun to be part of it! As someone who can easily spend hours pouring over a single artwork, to have a set amount of time, say, four hours to finish a piece, a big piece! This was something different, I found myself loosening up, setting the perfectionist in me aside, I felt I tapped back into that little girl painting her bedroom wall, it was liberating after my seven years of formal art education. I was eager to take part in more painting events like this, but being a mother base in rural Leitrim, my ability to engage in the Dublin street art scene was somewhat limited, despite this I was always delighted to be invited along and would rearrange the world to get to go.

We celebrated and announced it to the world with a group exhibition in April 2014 at the then ‘White Lady Art Gallery’ on Welligton Quay in Temple Bar and a live paint at The Bernard Shaw. During this time I was four months pregnant with my second son Gwyddion, this was my first big spray-paint piece and the wall was huge and I know I felt a little intimidated at first, comparing myself these talented ladies who had more experience with the medium, somehow I managed to shake that off and trust myself, I just went for it. I soon discovered that this was a safe space, that this was a group of supportive sisters. I learned a bunch from watching the others and got a lot of pointers, the brilliant Friz taught me about a process called cut-backs, putting a base colour down, doing the linework, then going back in to ‘cut-back’ into the linework with the base colour, tidying it up.

I felt very honoured just to be included, that these talented ladies accepted me to be part of their crew, the sense of sisterhood was so special to me and the memories of these times is something I know I will always treasure.

I have since taken part in other live paint jams and even some street art pieces, I’m not sure if that makes me a ‘Street Artist’ in the true sense, but I am very proud to have had my art up on the walls in the streets of Dublin. I have continued to do bits of mural work on my own between opportunities to collaborate with my MINAW sisters. I have never been as active in the scene as many of the other members but I am continuously delighted whenever I get the opportunity to participate in a project or event with them.

Since its inception the MINAW Collective has been a thriving organic entity and has taken on new members including the outstanding talents of ‘Signs Of Power’ aka Vanessa Power, ESTR aka Emma Blake and Holly Periera.