Introducing Kay O’Donoghue
I am a mixed-media artist with a keen interest in recycling materials and eco-art practices. I am qualified in Ceramic Design and love the tactile nature of clay, using it in much of my work. I am a qualified arts facilitator with a passion for working within a group setting, enjoying the dynamics and energy that group work brings. I have just completed a 2-year MA in Arts and Engagement with MTU Cork. Included in this, was an Arts and Wellbeing elective in my second year. My research project was a qualitative arts-based inquiry that focused on the impact of creative processes with 6 women currently experiencing menopause and whether engagement with art could foster empowerment. The final presentation was an exhibition “Unsilenced”, of the work produced by those women over a 5-week period. It was on exhibit in MTU Gallery Grand Parade Cork from May 20th to May 25th 2023.
I also have experience working as an assistant in a summer camp at Forest School in 2022 and I hope to participate again in the future. I am a part-time Mosaics tutor with Limerick College of Further Education, and I also facilitate in a women’s shed delivering “clay and conversation” classes, as well as intuitive mapping art workshops.
I will be exhibiting at Crawford Gallery in Cork this August as part of an Arts and well-being collaboration with my peers.
My hobbies include nature walking, puppet making, photography, creative writing, spoken word, ceramics, sustainable mixed media art, mindful practices, meditation, and music. I have been the lead vocalist in a jazz/ska band and work seasonally as a children’s entertainer (face painting and balloon twisting).
I believe strongly in using creative processes as a means to engage with communities and the power of art practices to Foster connections and help to affect positive change within those communities. Music, art, crafts and other forms of creative expression can be the foundations for rich discourse between those that engage together. The process of creating becomes the conduit through which people find identity with each other, develop empathy and from these group encounters, affirmative changes can happen for the individual and the wider community.
