Invited by Project Coordinator Hannah McCormick, I worked with the Youth Ecology and Art Collective at Butler Gallery since the Summer School programme in 2022 until the end of December 2025 . Along with artists Maura Brennan and Mollie King, we co-designed a week-long series of workshops that included building paper microscopes, learning the basics of photomicrography, printmaking and designing, nettle cordage, whittling, green woodworking and explored the themes of ritual and our responsibility to our planet.
In September 2023 I led a workshop entitled Future Humans that examined Donna Haraway’s speculations about the impact of climate change, human and more than human adaptations. Exploring how we might collectively adapt we made drawings, photocollages, and a life-sized hybrid/animal hybrid. In November, Hannah McCormick a coordinated visit to Suzanna Crampton’s regenerative farm in Bennetsbridge. An expert in soil biodiversity, Suzanna demonstrated how to collect soil samples and how to care for soil that is full of life. Based on this experience, I led a scientifically informed workshop that examined the unique microbiome of soil. Back in the Learning Center at Butler Galley, we documented the micro ecologies of soil through drawing, microscope photography, soil analysis and soil chromatography- an alternative photography technique that creates a unique portrait of soil.
We have made inks and pigments with kitchen ingredients and experimented with bioplastics over the past years.
One of the most enjoyable times I’ve spent with students from the YEA gang happened when I was commissioned for the Garden Studio residency. Below are a few images from the ever changing studio layout. The YEA gang spent the third week with me in this space- such a pleasure to share time, space and practices.
The last workshop shown here centred around fungi, we made a number of papers and paper sculptures from foraged turkey tail mushrooms, grew oyster and lions mane, and used magnifying glasses and drawing as methods for close observation.
