Carlow Arts Festival and VISUAL Carlow have announced Dreamtime Ireland as the title and theme of Artworks 2025; the annual open-call exhibition hosted by VISUAL as part of Carlow Arts Festival
Dreamtime Ireland exhibition is part of a wider research project by artist Sean Lynch that brings together overlooked, forgotten, controversial or unrealised artworks, pointing to often undervalued yet vital cultural forms of commentary, interaction, exchange, and provocation towards the shape of the world and its environment, both today and historically.
Carlow Arts Festival & Visual Gallery
The 2025 exhibition will be presented in the galleries at VISUAL from Thursday 5 June-Sunday 31 August 2025.
Entry Title: Saoirse
Medium: Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
Description: Finding freedom; the eternal quest for a life of authenticity, escaping conformity even if only for a short time. What does freedom mean to you?
Entry Title: Earthlings
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Paper | Framed with Glass Protection
Description: Who are the true Earthlings? A self-portrait painted prior to cataract surgery, trees have always been a grounding energy and source of self-healing.
Visual arts background in life drawing, a colourist, deeply influenced by creative studies in vocal expression (20+years).
Drawn to themes of connection through nature and places, quest for authentic self and the life experiences of women. Author of 2 self published books (wellness and poetry genres).
Favourite art quoth:
Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable
Cesar A. Cruz
In 2025, there is much need for comfort as our civilisation moves further away from all that's authentic, gentle and kind.
We'll find peace outside when we find it within, for this to work we need listening, acceptance, with a good deal of compassion. Peace for one is not enough however. Peace is an ongoing search and practice.
Doing the little that I can.
Through my art and writing I share stories and inspiration for transformation, healing and dreams turning to reality. When you visit my gallery you glimpse my journey, my authentic path. It took a ‘Break True’ moment to point me towards developing my artistic talents. It’s never too late to make a new start. I’ve achieved a lot in a relatively short time. My work has been presented in New York as part of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, has been displayed on county Post Office and has been show-cased on National TV. Read more about my art journey here.
The Silence project involves a core group of 45 Irish based creatives who share their reactions and sentiments in response to COVID19 pandemic and the night our world changed suddenly.
When all the work was done, I wanted to find out which paintings would be most admired, chosen and cherished. During my exhibition featuring 'The Sacred Lives Of Trees' collection, the paintings that received the most admiration were 'Treedom', 'Evening Tide', 'Loves Light Upon Us' and 'Gaurdians'. Other paintings had more individual admirers, we are […]
As soon as I published my first book, The Whisperings of Nature, it was snapped up by the talented Maria Lehtman in Finland. Maria had spotted my book news on Twitter. We had not been connected before that moment which lead to the beginning of our collaboration. I didn’t know it at the time but […]
