| Naughton, Joan |
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JOAN NAUGHTON Joan Naughton is a Galway based artist. Completing her Degree in Fine Art in Galway in 2005, Naughton went on to teach art classes in various venues around Galway city. The artists love for the Atlantic and its ‘battered west coast’ has inspired her to create sculptural works and paintings. Using materials found on the west coast, sea glass, shells, eroded stones and coral, these ceramic and mosaic sculptural builds are part of the Atlantic Ocean. Naughtons latest endeavour is the creation of light houses spotted along the west coast of Ireland and paintings of Atlantic life. Naughtons mosaic work has been exhibited in city hall and the Galway Museum. Joan Naughton is also a poet. ‘On rocky ground of the costal island, always feeling a deep connection with the sea, swimming in the ocean since childhood and later sailing around on a boat fishing, where the land seems solid from a distance, the sea seems more descriptive and honest, to that of the spirit of life, in its dramatic changes, instantly moody and changing throwing new paintings around. In Galway, my town connected by bridges, the magnetic power of water under us and around us, constantly changing, from dark skies to waves bashing against the shore, to calm lakes like glass. And wind swept, skies with sounds and singing, different blues and greens and multicolours. The life of marine creature’s underneath, in plantations of deep beds, teaming with brilliance of life, sometimes unseen only feeling the pulse. This island makes me question where I come from, and where I am going, the bridges that go here and go there through Galway, in every stretch of river, there are different stories of colours dancing, or aggressive, free, then calm. The sea is like spirit, the spirit of the land and those of us it inhabits, so close to the wide-open wild sea,lighthouses always fascinated me, like towers of light lamps within the night, guiding the fishing boats and ships safely into harbour, in a holy glow of care, each one is counted’. Joan Naughton |