MARY RYAN

While teaching art at secondary level in the late seventies, I decided that, although I had formal qualifications, it was time to take myself off and get a proper art education. That process has continued since, both formally and informally.

Initial travels in Central and South America laid the ground for a deeper involvement in textiles, starting with a back strap weaving course in Guatemala. I later worked for as a textile consultant to the Ministry of Industries in Ecuador. More sophisticated design and production skills were explored while studying for a textile design degree in the eighties. Textiles became my medium but I moved from weave design to using woven fabric itself as my material.

My work is about the land and the marks that nature and man have made upon it. That can encompass the broad landscape or focus on its minutiae. I believe that the wool and silk mainly used makes works that look as if they have grown rather than were made. Even minimalist abstracts have an organic softness.

I am a 'returner' from an Irish emigrant family. A sense of place and history, fostered since childhood, feeds my work. Since returning in '96, I have exhibited in Dublin, Galway, Mayo, Donegal and in the Irish Pavilion at the Hanover Expo. I had previously exhibited in England, Scotland and Wales.