My work with the Shoah Foundation recording interviews with holocaust survivors of WW2, and the correlation between this story and Brian McNeill's story during The Irish Civil War.

I am researching and mulling over the connection between memories and the Irish Landscape. I am currently creating Art based on this. I wanted to continue writing my ideas so that I can continue to refine these ideas so that I can better articulate my ideas. I wanted to document these new ideas and connect the current ideas to my previous work with the Shoah foundation, Visual History Holocaust Survivors and the emotions that work evoked is a definite beginning of where my current ideas began to emerge, I worked in Frankfurt for a film and video Production company, my work was to record/film the interviews of holocaust survivors, who told their story. The impact of listening to and recording the interviews of people who survived the holocaust in Germany during World War 2, reinforced how fragile life is, while at the same time reinforcing how massive each life is, when that life is lost in a tragic and violent manner, there is a residue left with us and the landscape, I have written about my experience when working in Frankfurt and on the interviews in the past. So if you need clarification on this work go to the post my artist statement, which is a bio of my life and work.

Currently I am using the story of Brian MacNeill the son of Eoin McNeill.  I am interested in his relationship with Benbulben in County Sligo. Brian McNeill died on the mountain with his men during the Irish War of Independence. There is a documentary that was aired on RTE about the life of Brian MacNeill and this story moved me so much, the documentary was titled The lost Son, it was told by his gran nephew Michael McDowell former minister for Justice for the FF party.

http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/alostson.html

I was very moved by the passion he had when he told this tragic story. A story that was repeated all over Ireland at the time of the War of Independence and our civil war, the tragic aspect of the story is that so many men and women died or had to leave Ireland because they did not want the treaty between Ireland and England at that time, and because they did not agree they were destroyed so to speak, and their families were made to forget them thru shame and intimidation, it's as if they were hidden within the landscape died and buried and forgotten, the landscape held their pain and shame. I am exploring the impact of Brian McNeills(and all the others who died or had to be banished from Ireland) relationship with the landscape in particular Benbulben where he and his men sought refuge and protection from the Soldiers, who eventually killed (them)him. I want to examine the impact that tragedy had on our landscape. I am examining the human emotions left behind after betrayal, bitterness, severe pain from the loss of someone to death.but then their families were silenced, by fear and shame. Etc, I am using the landscape to personify these emotions and to somehow answer the why's to these emotions, the unfairness of Brian McNeills death, my blog goes into more detail. When I previously worked in the Film and Video production industry, I worked in Frankfurt, Germany for ACI - Medienproduktionsgesellschaft mbH, Herrn Achim Ehlert Ingolstädter Str.38 60316 FRANKFURT One of the projects I worked on was recording interviews of holocost survivors in Frankfurt and the outer towns.. All of the recordings can be seen in the smithsonian museums in Washington the interviews were conducted in 1996. I am extremely proud of this work and feel privileged to have recorded the interviews and met the wonderful and inspiring people who survived.
I had very similar feelings about the bitter sadness of people who have been victims because of others hatred, greediness the holocaust victims and the survivors stories was probably the first time I began to examine the questions I am now seeking answers to in my Artwork, and that is why I feel it is important to mention this experience when discussing my current work.

http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/alostson.html

What are your thoughts on the memories our Irish Landscape holds for us

Irish Landscape and the secrets held within based on Our History and interaction with the land, both physical and in our thoughts...

Irish Landscapes of the mind, history, experience, emotions.

Footprints on our landscape, memories left on the Irish Landscape.

Invitation to everyone to please leave a comment on the notion that we leave a solid memory on our Landscape, this can be done by our physical interaction with the landscape, it can even be achieved by our genuine thoughts on a place. I therefore ask you to leave your ideas on this statement and idea. What do you think of the Irish landscape, do you believe it holds memories, and our interactions with the landscape. I pose the question: can your own ideas and feelings towards the Irish landscape have an impact on the landscape in a physicoligical manner or a physical way? I am Researching the idea of the impact of our thoughts and memories on the Irish Landscape. The landscape has a memory and I am investigating this relationship with the landscape in particular the Irish Landscape.
I am using Brian McNeill as a personification of these ideas.
This is a link to a documentary on Brian MacNeill and his death in County Sligo,
http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/alostson.html


The below image is of footprints that can be seen on Valentia Island, County Kerry, Ireland.

Footprints found in 1993 on Valentia Island, County Kerry

The reason I am showing you this image is to stir your thoughts on the notion of leaving a mark on our landscape. Can you think of other ways we leave a mark on our landscape, not only a physical mark as in the image above, I would like you to also think about the impact of your thoughts and views on the Irish Landscape. I will give a brief description on the above image: the image shows footprints that are left permenantly on the Irish Landscape in a remote place in County Kerry. The footprints are forever etched on our landscape. They are Ancient footprints preserved in stone that are estimated to be over 485 million years old. They were discovered in 1993 by an undergraduate geology student on the north-east side of the island.
They are one of the oldest sets of footprints found in the northern hemisphere (oldest found in Australia) and were made by a four legged creature called a Tetrapod.
A Tetrapod was one of the first known four limbed vertebrates to walk the planet. It was roughly the size of a large domesticated cat.
The ancient track-way is of international importance as it provides some of the oldest evidence of one of the first water dwelling creatures to make a transition from water to land?
Not easy to find but well worth discovering these tracks when you visit the island.
It's mind blowing to contemplate the fact that when these tracks were made by this Tetrapod, this part of the world was south of the equator and joined to north America! Our Landscape captured this moment in time and has kept it as a memory to share with us, can you think of other memories etched into our Irish landscape, there memories can be moments that have not necessarily left a physical reminder, for example a war, a battle, can leave a dark memory that our landscape minds, can you share your thoughts with me on that type of memory? Do you think it is possible for our landscape to hold on to our human experiences and interactions and keep thoes as a memory sealed into the land?

I am writing about this as it reminds me in a concrete way the idea of us leaving a mark on the landscape and when I say "us" I mean any living thing. I will continue to find more images of "footprints" I know people have found footprints of humans walking over the land that are also achieve, I will source the pics and post, again food for thought for all the artists following this blog and my ideas, The ideas I publish to keep you inspired and interested in this movement in the Art
 world which depicts the effects the landscape has had from our history, rather than the traditional way Artists used to capture the landscape and give us their visual interpretation, this movement seeks to visualise our impact on our landscape, this movement recognises that the landscape is a part of us and we it, and we explore that relationship.

Caves to canvases the Irish Experience

I found the Title for my upcoming work, watch this space, the actual art work will not been shown or the written proposals/articulated ideas behind the work till the end/showing. That is where the true uniqueness of the artist and work Resides!  It is not enough( for me)
to take pictures and put on a gallery wall or present a video installation without also including artwork that I have created, along with the afore mentioned. I would also like to rely on my skills as a visual artist painter and sculptor and create a visual solution for this project( Caves as refuge for 1916 revolunitaries, the people of the Irish civil war 1922 and our ancestors who sought refuge in our landscape, the impact this history has had and continues to have on our landscape((see previous posts)(it is only then that the viewer will have an answer, actually I will have an answer to the question; of the impact our history has on our landscape and the memory that our landscape holds/ the secrets our landscape holds. The solution is something to view that takes the viewer on the emotional journey that is held by our landscape, I want to unravel her secrets and spread them on a surface. I need to give the viewer in addition to pictures and videos of something that they can see, and presenting the video and still images in a gallery alone does not give it any meaning to me. The viewer can stand infront of the landscape and see exactly what is in the pic. I propose to go beyond that, to put an emotional dimension to the images of the landscape, thereby freeing the imotional impact of our Irish history ... That history which has scarred the landscape in a physiological way.
I will update this as I refine my ideas, the artwork will only viewed before being shown on this blog.