Drawing inspiration from the Troubles Art Exhibition, participants from across Northern Ireland and border counties, took part in the digital engagement programme, Portraits Past & Present. The programme explored art as a method of storytelling and responding to history, providing participants with the skills and encouragement to create a portrait of their own. Leading curators and artists were involved throughout the programme. Kim Mawhinney, Senior Curator of Art at National Museums NI, provided an overview of the organisation’s work in collecting and displaying work related to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, highlighting key artistic responses. Internationally acclaimed artist Colin Davidson led a moving lecture from his studio, discussing his practice and his body of work Silent Testimony, which features large scale portraits of people who experienced loss through the Troubles. Having reflected on the past, participants were invited to create a portrait that reflected their own experiences, and which looked forward positively to the future. Award winning illustrator Peter Strain led two creative, skills-based workshops, giving participants the tools and knowledge, they needed to create their own works of art. We are delighted to share a selection of the portraits created by our participants across these pages, and the stories and inspiration behind them. Shauna McGowan Community Engagement Officer at National Museums NI
Pamela Glasgow Baxter Stories to tell He’s an old art college tutor of mine, I always loved waiting on his critique as he has such a personality and so many stories to tell. I bet there so so many stories dancing in his head! I also love his art, his use of colour is an inspiration to me. He is the artist Neil Shawcross.
Susan Quinn Making the Future - Going Home I have since reflected on this project and kept thinking about Colin Davidson’s session and his words about looking right under your nose. I thought about my own history and the little girl I am raising. I came across a photo of her in a dark room. She was learning to walk at the time and had lifted herself up, supported herself using the windowsill, and looked out the window. The sunlight was shining on the top of her head and face. I thought this was a good analogy of the future I would want for her. It also reminded me of our lockdown situation at the moment too, so felt it had a double meaning. I’m from a predominately Protestant village in Fermanagh and my husband is from a predominately Catholic village in Tyrone. We met as teenagers in Omagh, on a course. Like many other young people in Northern Ireland, we moved to England for University. We moved yet again - to Dublin this time - in 2000 for work opportunities, got married, bought a home, and then our daughter came along. I was 13 years old at the time of the Enniskillen Poppy Day bomb. I went to school in Enniskillen and knew many impacted by it. On the morning of one of my GSCE exams, a policeman was blown up in his car across from my home. I missed that horror by 10 minutes, rushing to the exam. Around that same time, one evening, a bomb also went off outside a police station in the village I lived in. Our house shook. Bombs seemed to follow me... I arrived in Manchester the day after the largest IRA bombing in 1996. I had moved there to find summer work. My first thought at that time was ‘who was going to hire me with my accent?’ I ended up doing door-to-door sales across Manchester and only one person commented on my accent that whole summer. This picture was taken in our home in Dublin 6 years ago when my husband and I had just decided to sell up and move back to Northern Ireland. We knew there was little work opportunity in Fermanagh but were prepared to take the gamble. So, why did we want to raise our daughter in such a place? A place we remembered growing up with low flying helicopters, bomb scares, and police stops. After the Good Friday Agreement, I watched this place blossom very slowly. Atrocities still happened, but the feeling that I needed to be on guard was disappearing. During the difficult times in Northern Ireland in my younger years, I still had a happy childhood and felt part of a community. I wanted the same for my daughter. This is the place I wanted her to feel connected to. The Good Friday agreement meant that my life was extrinsically interwoven throughout England, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. I hope she will be able to do the same if she wants. My daughter began her journey in Dublin, and I am watching her personality being moulded by this ever-changing Northern Irish society. She is inspiring me already.
Sam Blair I chose Jack because he is an inspirational man. Making the Future, to me as a blow in, is all about showing what comes next for this incredible country. Jack, and all of the people I know here who are in their 20s, are all to some extent, affected by the recent past. Whether they have direct experience or have just inherited the knock-on effects of the collective trauma the country has lived through, there is still a subtle affect to be felt, and acknowledged. The first time I heard the word “fenian” was when Jack told his Mum he had been called a “fenian #@#@*” by some idiots in the pub. Not only did I not know what the word meant, I was completely unaware that such abuse and bullying in the name of sectarianism, still went on. Trying to then relate that to Jack, an open minded, peaceful soul, led to a nasty case of cognitive dissonance. I often find what has happened here very bewildering and confusing. I do remember vividly though; the powerful way Silent Testimony told the story. I don’t think I have ever seen such a vivid example of how art, portraiture, can be used to tell a story in such a moving way. With all of the presentations and information we have been given during this project, I kept thinking back to Jack. Jack is a random, wonderful, force of nature. He is sometimes a diver, sometimes works in the film industry. Definitely a guy ‘of all trades’, as his name would suggest. When I asked him to take some pics for me to work from, I asked him to think about what he wanted to show the world. The charcoal sketch was from a lovely photo of him looking wistfully into the distance. But then he sent me a pic of him gurning in a pink feather boa, in front of his yellow van. I knew I had to give it a try! Because, to me, that is the gift of Jack, and his contemporaries, that Northern Ireland gives the world. A generation of resilient, compassionate souls, who go out into the world as he does, ambassadors full of wit and charm. I have used colours as bright as possible, marks as full of life as I can muster, to convey the vitality of my friend Jack. This portrait has one final meaning for me. Jack’s Mum was called Caroline. She was a very dear friend to me, and she passed away three years ago. She was Sister at the local A&E, known as ‘Sister Rottweiler’! She was formidable with a kind heart. Jack was the apple of her eye, her boy. He, and his equally dynamic sisters Morgan and Madison, have honoured her every day since, in the way they don’t just live, they thrive. I promised Caroline a portrait of Jack, so, in memory of her, I will finish it. And then do portraits of his sisters.
Sarah Lawrence
I decided to do a portrait of my Mum Ann, who unfortunately is no longer with us. She has been a great inspiration to me, and I definitely take after her with her love of culture, art, costume, textiles and ornamentation. A child of the 60’s, Mum was drawn to eastern ideologies and campaigns for woman’s rights and nuclear disarmament. She also volunteered for Woman’s Aid and Oxfam and always had time to help anyone in need. Mum and Dad lived in Helen’s Tower, (a folly in the woods in Clandeboye Estate near Bangor), at the beginning of their marriage and until I was 3. The tower had with no hot running water or electricity and my parents had to collect drinking water from a nearby well. They had a donkey, a goat, peacocks and cats and I think the locals, who used to see my Mum wandering about with all the animals in long skirts and bare feet, thought my parents were quite eccentric. When I was in my early teens Mum went to tech and completed a course so she could go to Art College. It was strange listening to Kim talking about her time there and the art of the troubles as it really reminded me of visiting exhibitions with my Mum at the time and being inspired to create my own troubles art for my A-Level - something my Mum was very supportive of. This portrait is taken from a photo of my Mum in her early twenties dressed in what we think is a Chinese wedding dress. My Dad sent me quite a few photos, but I felt this one really expressed a lot about her personality. I initially used watercolours and acrylic, then worked on it digitally on an iPad.
Shirley Smylie Self portrait This is a mixed media piece. it is a dry point, with tonal pencil andcolouring pencil added to enhance the overall image.
CHRISTINA DONAGHY ‘We are woven’ A Mixed Marriage This is Eileen and Jim. They worked at the Linen Mill together in Lisburn. Despite being from opposite sides of the religious divide they fell in love and married. I believe mixed marriages should have a voice and a visual representation in any collection representing the legacy of the troubles in Northern Ireland. They should be included not only to remember the suffering and pain experienced by some families affected by this taboo but also because significantly they represent what was the birth of integration, and a difficult birth at that. Here, the couple in my portrait are rendered in carbon graphite pencil on paper, my sketch is laid over an old photograph of the linen mill in Lisburn. Given time I would like to print this on a piece of linen and present it as a tea towel or perhaps a flag. A new flag for ulster, ‘woven’ out of two threads, two traditions entwined and strengthened like the fabric produced by our flax industry. While my relatives in this portrait managed to spend their whole long lives together in a small flat in Lisburn, many ‘mixed marriages’ were not accepted in their communities. Sometimes newly-weds were placed in segregated housing estates here young couples, sometimes with young children would have experienced petrol bombs being thrown through letter boxes at night and aggressive graffiti painted onto their homes. Many would have been outcast from their own families, and we know that too many of them joined the diaspora, exiled from an island which could not accept them. The children from these marriages experienced their own challenges too, especially at school. With no integrated primary schools until 1981, these children were often at the frontline, not even equipped with the language needed to explain their identity. I could go on at length, but I would hope that the message taken from my image, or at least from the concept of it, as it is unfinished, is one of triumph. Northern Ireland is well on its way to breaking this taboo. Love as they say conquers the divide and our strength lies in the coming together of threads to make a textile which blends and holds together our northern Irish heritage and culture.
Justine Scoltock
Here is my digital painting of Margo Harkin. I wanted to highlight the people that document our story with the world. She is a Local film maker, Artist and all-round decent person that never stops in her pursuit to fight injustice. A strong woman that has worked hard for her career in a male dominated industry and always with a laugh to share with others. An inspiration and a friend.
Katherine Rowlandson
For my drawing I have chosen the Rev Mervyn Kingston. Mervyn and his husband, Richard, were good friends with my mum and dad, with who they campaigned for acceptance in the church for gay people. I knew him, and his husband as tireless advocates for gay acceptance in the church. Mervyn was giving same sex couple’s blessings in the early 80’s, when homosexuality was still illegal. Also below is a link to Richard talking about him. He puts it all better than I ever could. LINK
Victor Ellis My portrait is of Jonathan Rea, six times world champion (consecutively). A quiet family man and an example of “keeping your feet on the ground� as it were. He is a local hero to both sides of the divide and an excellent ambassador as he competes all over the world. My idea of layout reflects the six times he has been in this position.
Elizabeth Crooke Homeworking Portrait as documentation of 2020 My son is gaming with pals all over the world - a shared pastime with no borders ... my other son had a French fellow-gamer helping him with his homework! It’s all good natured and friendly. Possibly ephemeral (fleeting friendships), but at least they know the world is a big place and we share a lot in common.
CHRISTINA IRWIN I have a very artistic family and I’m a portrait photographer so I’m very drawn to faces and I think I subconsciously chose photography because I couldn’t draw. I’ve only taken up painting and drawing in the last few years and I’m working on developing my style. At the moment, it’s just anything and everything so there’s no cohesion. But I’m enjoying the process! I chose Gabriela Silang, the first Filipino heroine. My daughter is named after her. Always mentioned in connection with her husband, she was a hero in her own right who fought for freedom from colonial rule. I immigrated at a young age and have lived in several continents and it’s only in my adulthood that I’ve taken more of an interest in my heritage which I’m trying to foster with my children.
Charlotte Mullan
This is the portrait I did of my aunt with colour pencils. She regularly inspires me through her perseverance and dedication to art and helping others!
CHLOE EMERY
Pencil drawing of Amy Winehouse.
Conor Knox
Pencil drawing of my mum.
Sophie Young
Digital Portrait Inspired by Peter Strain.
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