Talented artist frequently finds inspiration in her Banagher memories

A DAUGHTER of Banagher fell in love with the town and its surroundings when growing up, and has remained in love ever since, channeling the memories she associates with the area into her artworks.
Dee Deegan no longer lives in Banagher, but her heart remains fully rooted in it; her inspiration is frequently revolving around it.
For many years she's been based in Galway city, where she runs her own art school. She refers to herself as “a Teaching Artist” who “runs an art school in Galway along with other creative work nationally and internationally.” This year is the tenth birthday of her art school which she has marked by launching a new website - www.galwayartacademy.com
I recently enjoyed a very interesting interview with Dee which touched on her childhood roots, her love of water, a busy life teaching art to children, her participation in many art exhibitions throughout Ireland and her fundraising involvement in the new Banagher pool. We began with a question about her childhood:
MT (Midland Tribune): Can you tell me a bit about your time growing up in Banagher, your parents, family, schooling, fond memories?
DD (Dee Deegan): I'm the youngest of five, born to Paddy and Marie Deegan in Cushcallow. My family has been in Banagher for generations with my grandfather Jack having worked in Wallers by the bridge all his working life as did my great grandfather before him. I have fond memories of summers in the kids' pool down by the bridge at the Shannon. My Dad sometimes took me out fishing with him in a little rowing boat. This must have been the beginnings of my love affair with the water, be it a lake, a river, the sea. I always crave being near or in the water.
Those early years have inspired so much of my artwork. The theme of memories dominated my work for many years. The house where my grandparents lived in Banagher became the focal point.
I went to school in St Rynagh’s National School until I was around nine years of age.
Even after we moved from Offaly to Templemore, Tipperary, we often visited relatives and our old neighbours. In small ways I kept my connection with Banagher but I never knew anyone there except our relatives and some of my parents’ friends. I was too young when I left to have made any lasting friendships. This disconnect with a place that was once home often made me feel a little sad. It wasn't until my parents moved back long after I had left home, to live in Banagher again in 2000 that I felt this even more. I'd visit my parents then in a town where I knew few people. My grandparents and most of our old neighbours had been long gone. I didn't feel a sense of being at home or belonging. My home had been in Templemore and now that my parents no longer lived there I became disconnected from that place too. It was a strange feeling. While home is always where your loved ones are, there is also a significant connection to a place and a community.
I studied fine art in Galway when I left school. I fell in love with the city of culture next to the sea. I vowed that one day I'd settle down in Galway. After almost 10 years in Dublin finding my feet and working in many different industries I eventually returned to Galway in 2007 and it continues to be the place I call home, in fact it's the place I've lived in the longest.
MT: Which parts of Banagher have inspired your artwork?
DD: When I visit Banagher I always feel drawn to the river and the bridge. I've drawn and photographed the bridge countless times. It's no wonder it became the symbol I used in my artwork to represent my identity. I became enamoured with the idea of the Banagher bridge as a symbol of an in between space, a state of constant transitions between places, personas and identities. On one side of this bridge, I'm in Galway and the other Offaly, the two places close to my heart.
In relation to my professional identity the bridge also represents my dual role as a teaching artist. First and foremost, I am an artist but as time has passed and my career has expanded I also became an educator. Now one can't work without the other and these two areas are equally important to me. The bridge represents the different facets of my character. It avoids placing prescriptive labels on my personality, and I will never fit into limiting categories.
MT: You've been connected with the fundraising campaign for the new outdoor pool in Banagher?
DD: I heard about the plans for the redevelopment of the swimming pool and immediately I wanted to somehow be involved. I was delighted to donate one of my bridge images to the recent fundraiser auction. It has been through this community initiative that I have felt a reconnection with my home town. It filled me with pride to play a very small part in this fundraising. The committee members have been working tirelessly towards their goal. I've even been invited to join one of the local swim groups for a dip in the Shannon. After nearly 40 years of feeling disconnected from my home town this redevelopment project has provided me with a way to reconnect and I'm grateful for that.
I would love to have an opportunity to share my artwork in the midlands one day. Banagher and Offaly have inspired and shaped the ideas behind my work for so long it seems a shame that so few people there are familiar with it. This article is a stepping stone towards changing that which is wonderful.
MT: Was there a teacher or teachers who influenced you when growing up and encouraged your innate love of creativity and Art?
DD: The school I attended in Templemore didn't have an art teacher, so I ended up doing Saturday morning classes. I pushed against the grain to follow my dream. With the support of a retired art teacher who was a nun I managed to study it for my Leaving Cert in 1995. I always knew I wanted to be an artist.
MT: You found your career path sometimes tough and challenging?
DD: Yes. For a long period I was frustrated with how unstable work was – doing substitute work, covering career breaks etc and no continuity in any role. Now I am fully self employed and am in a happier position. I have multiple roles across art and education:
I run weekly after school art clubs and holiday camps for primary school children;
I work with the arts council of Ireland on the creative schools programme;
I worked with the National Youth council of Ireland as a STEAM education specialist;
I offer STEAM workshops that celebrate the connection between art and science as part of science festivals nationally.
More recently I returned to study again myself in UCD and this has resulted in me branching out into facilitating continuous professional development workshops with primary school teachers.
MT: Who were the artists who have influenced you (either historical or contemporary)?
DD: It’s really difficult to answer as there have been so many. When I was young the first artists I encountered were Picasso and Van Gogh and they remain firm favourites with me. As my own art practice has developed I have become more interested in conceptual art and abstraction. For me the work needs to have meaning – it needs to communicate something, it needs to challenge the viewer, make them curious and ask questions - it’s never enough for me to be just about making something beautiful to hang on the wall.
MT: Can you tell me more about the themes of transience, memories, personal identity and belonging in your artwork? Do you feel a tension between your values (as expressed in your art) and the values of the contemporary world?
DD: Outside of family I feel a great sense of belonging when I am with other like-minded creative people, be it dipping in the sea, drumming or attending art exhibition openings. Galway certainly is the City of The Tribes, and I found my tribe in Galway.
When I think about memories I always think of them in layers, some memories are not so clear and sometimes they merge together and on top of each other. I bring this way of thinking about and representing memories through to my creative process. Sometimes I use found materials such as old wallpaper as part of these prints.
In my earlier career I produced a body of work called What’s left behind. This overlapped with the memories theme but on a more personal level. It captured the traces of my grandparents' lives in their house in Cushcallow. I was captivated by the simple wear and tear of repeated use on surfaces within the house, the cracks in the glass door, the weathered and rusted surfaces and the old-fashioned interior patterns. I documented the evidence of their existence there perhaps in an effort to preserve it. I also turned their sitting room into a camera obscura and photographed the ghostly images of the exterior landscape as it bounced into the room upside down. The graveyard they are both buried in is over the hill across from their house and it was eerily comforting to briefly bring their spirits back into this house using the physics of light that is photography.
MT: What mediums do you enjoy working in?
DD: I choose a medium that best suits the themes in my work – mostly combining different mediums in one image. I would describe myself as a multidisciplinary visual artist.
I specialised in printmaking in college, and I've always been drawn to photography, I especially like the old methods and the science of photography. Alongside digital I use film and pinhole cameras in my artwork and I love experimenting with combining printmaking and photography with other mediums. My favourite printmaking method is collagraphs and they blend beautifully with my abstract photographs as I layer different images over each other.
I also love working with found objects especially books and reworking them into sculptural objects. This interest in books led me to design the bridge arch bookcase inspired by the Banagher Bridge.

READ MORE:

https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/arts---entertainment/1822763/exhibition-at-offaly-library-marks-first-anniversary-of-local-artist-s-death.html