Alumni Stories - Pauline Flynn
"If you want to be an artist you need to build up your stamina and perseverance. Success as an artist does not come easy, nor is it found only in being commercially successful. Being an artist is a lifelong commitment. My conviction in my creative life is the most important thing to me"
Name: Pauline Flynn
Current Career: Fine Art Painting, Poet
Graduation Year: 1985
Disciplines: Painting, Poetry, Sculpture, History of Art
Location: Co, Wicklow
What career path did you want to follow as a child?
I always wanted to be an artist. Though, I had no idea what being an artist meant. My father’s carpentry workshop was full of stuff, including cans of paint that I played around with. I wanted to make things.
Why did you decide to study at National College of Art & Design?
I started off at Dun Laoghaire School of Art & Design in 1979. I was interested in abstraction from the beginning. I studied arts and crafts for three years and was inspired by the ethos of the Bauhaus. I wanted to experience a different environment and further my studies. I transferred to the Sculpture Department, NCAD in 1982. I graduated with a BA in Fine Art Sculpture/History of Art in 1985. In my last year at the National College of Art & Design, I was awarded a semester to the Art Institute of Chicago’s Performance Department, as part of NCAD’s exchange programme. This was exciting and timely, as I was already moving away from making objects under the guidance of Aileen McKeogh. My first public ‘performance’ was in Temple Bar Gallery & Studios before it became what it is today.
How did you develop your career towards your current job/practice?
Leaving art college in 1985 was just the beginning of the work. I started showing immediately, with groups like the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, the Independents and the Guinness Peat Aviation Awards for Emerging Artists. The ROSC exhibitions in Dublin around that time were very important in opening Ireland up to a wider world of visual art. In 1987, I was lucky enough to be awarded a two-year research scholarship ‘Mombusho’ to the University of Arts in Kyoto, Japan. Then again in 1991/92, I was awarded a ‘Gaimusho’ scholarship to Shiga University, for research towards an MA in the History of Art at UCD on the Japanese kite as a contemporary art form. The years living in Japan had an extraordinary and long-lasting effect on my life and work. It was there I began to paint. I learned how to make Japanese handmade paper (Washi) and all my paintings were on Washi. I studied calligraphy and absorbed the Japanese aesthetic of colour. I had solo exhibitions in Kyoto, Okayama and Tokyo - painting and installation.
Back in Ireland, I continued to exhibit. I had my first solo show in the Project Arts Centre in 1990 and was later taken on by the Oliver Dowling Gallery. I also continued to travel to stretch my visual language. I continued to apply to open submission exhibitions, which included Gateway to Art, EVA, etc. and I undertook an Arts Council touring exhibition to Galway Arts Centre, Limerick City Gallery and Triskel Arts Centre, Cork. I showed in multiple selected group shows. I was selected as the featured artist in the Eigse Festival in Carlow in 1999. I later exhibited with the Peppercanister Gallery in Dublin. I also secured and successfully completed artist residencies in Ireland, Spain and the USA.
I had a small studio in Dublin for years. I moved back to Wicklow in 1999, where I built my own studio. I also worked as a part-time lecturer at NCAD for almost 20 years, which enabled me to continue my work as a professional artist. In 2008, I took a break from painting to do an MA in Creative Writing at University College Dublin. Now I write poetry. In 2018, I returned to visual art renewed. I was invited to be part of a group show in China, where I had also exhibited in 2007/8. I was selected for the 90th International Beijing Art Biennale in 2022.
In 2020, I began a new body of work in response to a few medal ribbons in the Limerick Museum. The Covid pandemic gave me the opportunity to concentrate, without interruption, on what has now developed into a new departure in my work. My work now explores geometric abstraction using acrylic on canvas. I’ve been exhibiting this series of paintings throughout 2023 in Cork, Limerick, Dublin, and Wicklow. Currently, I have a solo show at Damer House Gallery in Roscrea in Tipperary.
My poetry has been published in various poetry journals in Ireland the UK and USA.
What is the one experience during your time at NCAD that has informed you most in your career/work to date?
I’ve always thought that I had the best art education a person could have. Three years at DLSAD (now IADT) learning about craft, materials and making. Then three years in NCAD learning how to develop ideas and work with expanded media, - performance art, sound work, 3D space and the 4th dimension – Time.
If you were chatting with current NCAD students today what is the one piece of advice you would offer?
If you want to be an artist you need to build up your stamina and perseverance. Success as an artist does not come easy, nor is it found only in being commercially successful. Being an artist is a lifelong commitment. My conviction in my creative life is the most important thing to me.
What in your opinion are the most meaningful opportunities for those pursuing creative careers today?
For the majority of artists, the reality is that it is necessary to have another source of income separate to the one they might make from their art sales.
There are many opportunities to apply for project funding at the Arts Council. Becoming part of a group studio will help allay any feelings of isolation.
It is necessary to become skilful in applying for funding, and writing proposals for exhibitions and/or residencies both in Ireland and abroad.
Explore different ways of expressing yourself. I graduated in sculpture but now I work as a painter and write poetry. Don’t be afraid to change. Join the VAI to keep up with what’s on offer in the art scene. The most important thing is to find a place to work and keep it private.
