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Getting on my Goatigan

Drawing on my Skin, Charcoal on canvas, 120 x 242cm

Despite goats’ reputation in Christian culture for their pagan and Satanic associations, I’ve always admired their hardy resourcefulness and agility.

You will appreciate those qualities if you’ve ever seen a goat calmly balancing sideways on a sheer Atlantic cliff face in high winds. I also enjoy their propensity for rude wild chaos and refusal to be totally tamed. They’re far better crack than sheep.

Although human/goat hybrids are often male in mythology – the fauns and satyrs of Greek and Roman myth – goat-woman stories exist in a number of cultures. There are the Scottish Glaistig and the Greek Goat Girl, which have similarities to the Celtic Selkies and Mermaids. These folk-tales frequently revolve around female shape shifting human/animals being coerced into relationships with humans by someone stealing and hiding their skin.

I made these pieces as self portraits, evoking my connections with the physical, uncivilised self we all possess.

Getting on my Goatigan, Monoprint, Hand bound album book , 37cm x 36cm x 10 pages
Exhibited: Breathing Space Creative Spark Annual, Basement Gallery, Dundalk  2016
Straddle, Oil on Canvas 30 x 40cm
Exhibited: Edge Gateway Gallery, Bridge Street Studios, Dundalk 2017,
Galway Fringe Festival Galway City Gallery 2018