Carmel Madigan

Carmel Madigan grew up on the remote, exposed headland of the Loophead Peninsula, on the southwest county Clare coastline. “We were storm withered and ocean thrashed on a very regular basis” Carmel recalls, “I owe my school of thoughts as an artist to these abrasive elemental movements, together with the riches of colour introduced to my young life by my mother's exotic summer garden, where the fallen were collected into makeshift bouquets on the window sills and tabletop, as well as the textures of the majestically sculpted natural rock formations of the cliffs and shoreline at Ross, Loophead”.

In later years, Carmel Madigan’s artistic mind has been driven by the charm of nostalgic reminiscence afforded by her elderly parents, together with her desire to evolve creative installations that are environmentally friendly and which seek to inspire others to multi-use available resources on the planet. These factors, together with her immersion in the wild natural environment at Loophead, studying its flora and fauna and their behaviours on an investigative scale, have combined to lead her artistic pathway. 

Carmel explains: “In my works, you may find amongst other details, a quest for texture, movement, flora, colour, ocean, debris, entanglement. These are the references from nature and life that infiltrate my work. I find myself wholeheartedly immersed in these topics and my development of processes to execute these elements is driven by these inner dialogues. Therefore, my work becomes an authentic, organic execution of the mind's visions, as collected directly from the sources that inspire it most. There is an innate sense of light-heartedness, energy and simplicity within that framework. Furthermore, my current work is the output of over two decades of creative and natural explorations and development as a commercial, professional artist.” 

1980’s Recession Ireland 

While she had always loved art and studied it at school, Carmel Madigan née Magner chose to go the business route by becoming an accountant. After graduating with a Bachelor of Business Studies (Finance) degree from UL in 1983, Carmel spent the next 13 years working as a financial accountant in the banking and multinational sector, with roles in Europaks, Irish Coop Society Limerick, Burlington Industries Ireland and Tellabs Ltd. In a special ‘Women Mean Business’ (Áilín Quinlan) interview, Carmel described the realities of her role. “It was a very challenging and very fulfilling career, but with a young family, I found the work was not flexible enough. It is difficult to work through a corporate year-end, right through Christmas to meet Nasdaq expectations, when one has very small children with traditional family Christmas expectations.” 

Leap of Faith 

As the introduction of new technology started to impact the world of work, Carmel decided to Leave her accountancy career and set up a graphic design business ‘Designer Print’ in Ennis, Co. Clare. This move allowed her to learn new skills in computer-aided graphic design, as well as print management. Six years later, she took a further leap of faith to embark on a full-time creative artistic career, taking on the creation of both large and small projects. 

Meant to be a ‘creative’ 

Casting her security aside so that she could lay her creative pathway, Carmel explains simply “I know I was meant to be a ‘creative’… having said that, I also had to work hard at it to yield adequate financial and personal rewards”. She admits to feeling a strong individualist and expressionist pull and is quite protective of that, saying “For my art to have meaning for me, it has to be a journey of my own mind and soul, and I love those journeys.” 

She constantly feels the urge to be in her studio creating. "My mind can be a melting pot, a fusion of concurrent thoughts and ideas. Channelling these onto the surface of paper and canvas is intensely engaging and challenging.” Beginning her career as an artist in 2000, Carmel began to experiment with paint and brush and various media and in 2004, her first studio was built, allowing her to create large work, giving the budding artist her own private space. 

Recession, again 

As soon as she began to promote her work commercially, her reputation as an artist grew quickly and among her various honours was being selected in 2009 to represent Ireland by the Florence Bienniale Committee. 

“This was the Celtic Tiger era”, Carmel recalls, “My work was very attractive and energetic and it began to sell very well.” She was very focused and professional in the way in which she approached galleries and art fairs and in setting up and curating her own events. She adds “You do need to have an understanding of marketing and finance.” However in 2011, with a significant downturn in the economy, the art market suffered a major blow: “Art is the ultimate luxury,” she says pragmatically. “My sales dropped by 70% and I had to look elsewhere.” 

One hedge school, two studios and three books later… 

Carmel diversified by researching and publishing her first book and building herself a second studio which led to the setting up in 2013 of a creative and environmental summer school called ‘Loophead Summer Hedge School’. The school continues to attract visitors from Ireland and abroad, keen to learn through modules including: ‘Seashore Safari’s’ ‘Guided Hedgerow Walks’, ‘Herbal teas from the Hedgerows’ and several art-related modules. Carmel has also developed modules and topics for delivery at Trinity College Dublin and by the Department of Education and Skills as part of their Summer Teachers Courses. Two more books would also follow, as well as a large body of artwork. 

Landscape and movement 

Carmel established herself as a successful visual artist with a unique relationship with the landscape around her through her research and investigation of natural habitats. She also adds that because her family didn’t have a car in her early childhood, to get from A to B, you had to be out in the elements. She says “These elements are actually extremely energizing, full of movement and so when I paint, there is always movement, sometimes it is aggressive movement, while other works portray gentle movement”. 

Marine Plastics 

“My quest is to pioneer, and through experimentation, I’ve worked with a very significant array of materials – ocean plastics, botanical materials, rock fragments, fibres, wires, and all sorts of found items,” Carmel says. This quest led to Carmel also developing special environmental programmes for the Marine Institute including the Marine Plastics ‘Circular Revolution’ project and exhibition which involved the participation of 750 students and 13 schools in Co. Clare. And as part of her artist-in-schools work with primary schools, sponsored by the Arts Council, Carmel has developed special art Projects including ‘Great Modern Masters of the Ocean (involving Hiroshige & Hokusai of Japan), which was officially launched in Dec 2019 by Ambassador Kitano (Japanese Ambassador to Ireland). 

Eco projects 

A long-standing fascination for materials, their forms and functions has revealed itself through the incorporation of a wide range of materials throughout Carmel’s traditional artistic processes. Materials such as antique lace, sand and gravel, newsprint, textiles, hand-dyed yarns, Japanese papers, haberdashery products, plant and biological material, can be found within the layers that each constitute an original work of art created in her studio. 

Carmel does not see materials and products as being just created for single use, but indeed for multi-use, whose onward usage sparks imagination and experimentation. Natural materials too fall within this channel of rebirth and re-generation. 

‘Consuming Summer’ is a large triptych (measuring 244cm x 122cm) that Carmel created from months of household plastic waste, by heat reforming the plastic, before assemblage and spray paint. Each project is created with longevity in mind and as a professional artist, Carmel’s job involves ensuring the right creative and preservation materials are used in each project, bearing in mind its particular living environment. 

Recycled school furniture 

As an artist, with direct sympathies towards nature, the environment and the qualities and aesthetics of materials themselves, Carmel has greatly welcomed opportunities to work with organisations and schools, willing to push their appetite and responsibility for global citizenship through the creation of lasting projects that regenerate pre-used materials. 

Such projects to date include the design and creation of the Garden of Global Friendship & Citizenship with the 400-pupil community at Barefield Primary School near Ennis, county Clare. The school itself organized much of the recycled materials collections through call-outs to the school community, involving parents and others in the process and through which we were able to incorporate used plastic drums, punctured footballs, milk cans, worn tyres and old water chutes”. This project went on to be chosen by An Taisce to be exhibited at the Green Schools Expo at RDS, in 2016. 

Other collaborations in the same year included ‘The Wayfarers Garden’ (2016), from a final poem by Padraig Pearse which inspired the design, creation and installation of several recycled artworks in a natural garden setting, together with wild flora with Annagh primary school, near Miltown Malbay, Co Clare. 

‘Dialogue with Maritime’ involved the design, creation and installation of 90 panels reminiscent of the maritime riches with St. Senan’s Primary School, Kilrush. An earlier project created with the same school was the Life Savers project, as part of the National Famine Commemoration. This involved taking the children to the shoreline and woodland in the area, to find the sources of food that kept people alive during the famine, and to incorporate them in a suite of eight artworks. In this process, natural materials like seaweeds, limpet shells, periwinkle shells, nettles, charlock and others were preserved and decorated within the artworks to celebrate their importance to our ancestors. 

“There is no doubt that a real energy and buzz emanates with proposals that incorporate the materials in a meaningful way, thus the Reflective Table, becomes a table space in the garden, created with recycled school furniture and old cd’s that reflect the sky and overreaching branches, and provides for meditation for pupils and staff". 

Reflection 

“I believe that my visual expression is a concoction of my life, my environment, my ancestral linkages, my inspirations, experiences, and my genes. I work organically, without pre-conception of the end image. This provides a sense of freedom from the shackles of boundaries...” Carmel reflects. 

As an artist who continues to work across genres (mixed media & painting), Carmel says this is necessary for her own approach to diversity and progression in her work. She concludes: “I find that everything I do informs my work or leads to something new. I never close the creative door – or my mind – to anything!” 

Carmel Madigan has exhibited her artwork throughout Ireland, as well as in Spain, Italy and New York. Additionally her artwork is held in many prestigious public, corporate and private collections throughout Ireland, USA, Austria, UK, France and Spain. 

To learn more about Carmel Madigan’s work: 

Contact: Carmel T. Madigan, Artist Studio, Clonteen, Ballyalla, Ennis, Co. Clare 

Email: CTMADIGAN@EIRCOM.NET 

Or follow Carmel on Facebook.