Thomas Pool: As a sculptor, what draws you to wood as a medium?
Tina O’Connell: It’s probably the smell of it! My dad was a very talented self-taught carpenter, building his own currachs in the 1970s and his own fishing boat in the 80s, that he used to fish during the 90s. He then started his own business making stairs, up until he retired. So being in his workshop and around wood just felt right. I had worked on some projects with him over the years, so wasn’t scared to use the machinery, but he also taught me how to be safe in my approach, when working in the workshop.
TP: How has your practice evolved over the years?
TOC: My journey into art began quite spontaneously. About 12 years ago, instead of our usual wine night, a friend and I decided to paint. We ended up using old slates from her house renovation. That night sparked something in me, and I started painting on slates and canvases, mostly doing commercial work and commissions, selling at markets and through my website.
I really wanted to develop my own art practice, so I went on to do Fetac Level 5 and 6 courses in Ennistymon Art School. I was encouraged to work on a theme each year; looking back now, I realise my themes were autobiographical. I got my portfolio together and decided I was getting my degree. I chose to enter directly into second year of the BA in Sculpture and Combined Media at LSAD, as this seemed like the course with the most freedom to explore all materials.
Even though the course was a challenge and involved learning digital media programmes, I loved the capability to tell stories through stop motion, sound and video. Throughout college, I continued to make work that related to my own life, as I feel that I can only make good art about something I know. I have been using sculptural carving as a medium to tell stories that are autobiographical.
TP: How and where do you source the raw materials for your pieces?
TOC: Well, a lot of begging and trading paintings with people! I live in The Burren with very few trees, other than forestry pine, so Raymond, a tree surgeon I know, got me a few nice pieces of wood. He put me in contact with a man named Joe, who had a forestry and donated some of the larger pieces that I used in my degree show. Some other locals also donated pieces, which I am very grateful for. The pieces in the show were a mix of oak, cypress and beech. Going forward, I plan to get the funds to buy a trailer load of cypress.
TP: You have written previously about how your work explores issues surrounding mental health and motherhood. Could you tell us a bit more about that?
TOC: For me, my mental health is strongly linked in with my experience of being a mother. As a young mother, I felt pressure, from myself and society, to always look like I was coping, regardless of sleepless nights and constantly battling with my weight. My children’s father mostly worked away from home, so I was effectively a single mother Monday to Friday. I began to suffer with my mental health; antidepressants helped in a lot of ways, but I felt they suppressed my creativity a little. I found that sea swimming throughout the winter helped, and going on long hikes, finding time for my brain to switch off from the demands of the everyday and just being with my thoughts. I am very much aware now of the signs of my mental health going into decline, and the first thing I try to do is go for a swim. Other times, I get a pen and paper and start writing all my thoughts down so that they aren’t just swimming around in my brain – this really helps. Sometimes I find humour in those writings, which lifts my head from that darkness.
TP: Your recent graduate exhibition at Limerick City Gallery of Art featured a lot of carvings depicting family and domestic life. Could you tell us about your intentionality for these pieces?
TOC: My exhibition was deeply personal, with each carving capturing the complexities of family and domestic life. The first carving I did, Feach Orm (See Me), was carved at time when I was feeling very low and full of self-doubt. My daughter had just left to go back to university in New Zealand, and I was feeling immense loss. I used to plait her hair, so I decided to go with the shape of the wood and carved two French plaits with a face, using images of my daughter for reference. I was new to the chainsaw and in the process of working on this piece, I had made a deep cut in the neck that was unfixable. I thought about the French plaits and the nice clothes we wore going to mass. Outwardly, we looked like a perfect family, but times were tough with little money. So, although Feach Orm initially was about my daughter, it became even more relevant to my own upbringing and the masks we were taught to wear outwardly to the world. My sculpture, When you were big and I was small, borrowed the title of my friend Katie Theasby’s song that she wrote about her dad. In this case, the teenager is 6ft tall, carved from cypress wood, wearing her GAA gear with her headphones attached to her mobile phone. The mother is smaller at 4ft, made to feel small by not being listened to. Really, the intention of all the pieces is that they tell a story – one that I hope mothers and families can relate to, with humour found amongst the dramas of everyday life.
TP: Are there any upcoming projects you’d like to share with us?
TOC: I just finished a one-month residency with The RHA and Áras Éanna in Inis Oírr, where I was inspired to make work relating to my grandfather and father. I used stone to carve objects and shared stories of my grandad; it was a wonderful experience. Some of the islanders knew my father from his fishing days, and the golden goose was finding the currach that my father first built, sitting on the beach in Inis Oírr.
I am very excited to be exhibiting in Limerick City Gallery of Art in September, where I will show work from my degree show. LCGA were strong supporters of Irish sculptor Janet Mullarney and have some of her work in their permanent collection. It will be a privilege to exhibit in a space where this incredible woman exhibited.
In October, I am heading to Austria for two weeks. I won the LSAD-TUS Global Travel Award, so will be doing a one-week course in concrete sculpture and a one-week course in chainsaw carving. I am really excited to develop my chainsaw carving skills, as up to now, I have only been using the chainsaw for blocking out, then refining with the angle grinder and Dremel. The concrete sculpture will give me an alternative for creating large-scale projects, which I would love to explore in the future. I am also going back to LSAD to do an MA in Fine Arts part-time. I am itching to get back to carving wood, so if anyone wants to donate wood to North Clare, where no trees grow, I will gladly take it!
Tina O’Connell is an artist and sculptor living in The Burren.
