A few days before heading to Ireland I was at Stanek Gallery speaking excitedly about returning to Ballinglen again. Ballinglen Arts Foundation is located in Ballycastle, County Mayo, in the Northwest corner of Ireland’s Atlantic coast. Its landscape, light and people have been a big inspiration in my painting for a number of years. There is a strong connection between Philadelphia artists and Irish artists: traveling, artists’ residencies, admiration for each other’s work, collaboration, but so far not an exhibition together.
This led to an enthusiastic discussion of the connection. The people at Stanek Gallery embraced my passion for the Irish visual arts and a couple of weeks later reached out in support of the idea for this show.
The title of the exhibition is drawn from Seamus Heaney’s professing of poetry’s surprise and reliability. We are curious about what it is to be human, the experience that connects all of us, the overarching beauty and tragedy that we see in nature, that is also in our humanity. Seamus Heaney investigates this greater connection and how poets try to express it with words. He describes this as “celebrating its given unforeseeable thereness, the way it enters our field of vision and animates our physical and intelligent being.” I see this discovery in the visual arts as well. The artists in this exhibition each share with us a glimpse into what excites and inspires them, all in their individual connection to Ireland.