Art in Lockdown: Take solace in Limerick artist's imagination

WE all need beauty in our lives and, especially, at the present time.

A group of artists came together to give people a way to have their daily art and cultural fix from the safety of their own homes. Called Art in Lockdown Exhibition, the idea is to use a Facebook page as the exhibition space, where each of the artists get to show one piece of their work per day.

One of those taking part is Castleconnell’s Clare Hartigan.

Having just finished quite a large body of work for the Togetherness Exhibition with her mum, Barbara, she would normally have taken a break. But Art in Lockdown got Clare’s creative juices flowing again.  

“Before you know it you are not worrying so much about what’s happening and maybe you even start to feel like you are doing a little to help the morale of those that are finding solace in our imaginations,” she explained.

Her current work has been greatly influenced by the pandemic. In January, as Clare followed the news from China her paintings featured empty streets, people locked in at home and a sense of fear of the unknown. 

“Once the pandemic came closer to our doorstep the realisation that wallowing in it wasn’t going to be positive for my mental health. 

“I started to look at the blessings that I could find. To see people walking around with smiles on their faces, the clean air, birds singing, families spending more time together. Home being where the heart is and the letting go of the constant need to have to buy stuff,” said Clare, who believes that sometimes you have to identify a negative feeling and address it. 

But moving forward, find something to be positive about or do something that makes you feel good about yourself is equally important, she says. 

“I think, as an artist, that is my job. To address the issue but to find a way out of it together, hopefully to a place of calm,” said Clare.

There is a lot to be positive about if only it didn’t take a deadly pandemic to make us realise it, she said.

“I think the abiding thing that many of us will take from this is the incredible strength and dignity our frontline workers have shown. From the supermarket staff to the healthcare workers to those running the country – we seem to have all found a way to come together and work together in a way that would make you proud to be Irish. 

“We may have missed St Patrick’s Day this year, but being Irish is not about a day. It is something deep and caring that is just in our nature,” said Clare.

For more of her work see the Art in Lockdown Facebook site or her own page at https://m.facebook.com/ clare.hartigan.artist/