THIS Wednesday February 24 at 11am, Carl Doran of Contact Studios for visual arts will give a free talk at The Hunt Museum.
Head for Hunt Café downstairs to hear this artist ‘in conversation’ with museum curator Naomi O’Nolan.
Over the last 16 years Carl Doran has created a series of projects to interact with the public. One example is ‘The People’s Postcard’: a Per Cent For Art Commission for Breaking Ground, Ballymun, 2008-9 arose out of a perceived need to include newly arrived members of this community from outside of Ireland.
Integral to the 16+ professional artists operating out of Contact Studios is their interactive and teaching relationship with clients of St Joseph’s Hospital (psychiatric), with whom the artists share territory.
Doran himself has had regular solo exhibitions, coupling often with Limerick Printmakers as well as private galleries. Known primarily for painting, collage and drawing, he has published and illustrated ‘truth-is-stranger-than fiction’ booklets. These detail the adventures of Mathilda, a cat with a defiant instinct for survival and meaty blackbirds.
‘A Cat’s Tale’ is his exhibition of paintings and stories, portraits that spring from observations of feline fancies on the river bank by the artist’s home. There’s an elegance and tenderness to his narratives.
Life at ‘Park Kiosk’ in The People’s Park was a chilly toss in winter, for which he sketched pet portraits and heard their stories from passing owners. This was City of Culture funded work in 2014 that brought random community into contact with the workings of art/ artists.
This Wednesday 24’s talk will take place in the Hunt Café at 11am. See Doran’s website www.carldoran.ie for more.
