Paulette O' Donovan

Our world shapes us; the families and friends that we have and make, the lives we lead, and the experiences that we have. All of these things contribute to the art we create. I don't think at times that it is even intentional. It is intrinsic. It reflects us and the individual view that we each have of our world.

People fascinate me. Our minds, our traits, the superb machines that our bodies are.... these factors crop up in my work again and again. Art and the process itself, for me, is like balm for the soul. It is a way of expressing what is inside of us. Our hopes, our dreams, even our heartaches, inadvertently pour out into our work. Sit me in my studio and I will forget the time, forget to eat, the world and its worries literally melt away. Add in the trials and sometimes tribulations of working with a new material, and it becomes playtime with determination!

My main area of art is sculpture. I work with materials such as pouring plaster, plaster bandage, wax, clay and paper tissue. The journey of making something new, shaping materials and being not quite sure of the way the piece is going to go/become is quite exciting. I have a story to share within my work and the hope is that it resonates with people in some capacity.

As Degas once said -

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."

Paulette O' Donovan, Clonmel based Visual Artist