Oil Paint on Canvas, PET Plexiglass Sheet With Alcohol Marker
2026
2x2 ft
This work is deeply rooted in the Irish War of Independence. The main focus images are artifacts from Kilmainham Gaol exhibits that closely relate to the experience of prisoners.
The images below are connected to the fight required to win freedom, while the top layer reflects what came after. These layers represent a narrative of feeling what we had to do, what we endured, and what we made.
The blue image best represents this narrative, as it follows my great-grandfather’s story. The base painting references a painting my great-uncle made of the battle at the Four Courts during the Easter Rising, where my grandfather fought. The belt buckle included is one he made while imprisoned during the war.
The top layer, placed on plastic, holds the same corner where the painting occurred, bringing the past into the present surface of the work.
The layering of these elements forms a narrative that moves through resistance, imprisonment, and aftermath holding both personal history and national history together, where one cannot be separated from the other, but instead continues to build across generations.