I work mainly with watercolour and metal leaf, exploring Irish mythology and the ways in which these stories continue to live in the present. My background in history and anthropology influences the way I approach them, by looking at the historical contexts, languages and communities through which they have been passed down. Their transformation is part of their history. What interests me lies precisely in these successive lives, and in what people still seek in myths today.

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In my paintings, I revisit ancient mythological figures while leaving enough space for them to hold contemporary experiences connected to identity, gender, belonging, migration or autonomy. Watercolour allows me to work with flow, accidents and the transformation of the image. Gilding echoes what societies choose to preserve, what they invest with particular value and bring into collective memory.

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While preparing my exhibition Seanscéalta, Guthanna Beo, What Still Lives Here, I began collecting testimonies about the place of Irish mythology in people’s lives today. The responses were far more numerous and varied than I had imagined. People spoke to me about their families, their relationship with Ireland, exile, the comfort they had found in certain figures, and the difficulty of finding their place within a culture. These testimonies confirmed to me that myths continue to travel, to be adopted and to change with the people who live with them. They also opened up a new direction in my work, towards contemporary mythmaking, or neo mythmaking.

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I now want to create from these voices and experiences. For me, the testimonies are not stories to illustrate literally, but starting points for imagining new mythological figures, capable of carrying something of our contemporary concerns. At the same time, I want to leave enough space for them to be adopted, interpreted and transformed by others in turn.