Artistic License: David Eager Maher

Every artist needs a community, a tribe, their “people” – good art is not made in a vacuum. There’s always a conversation. I grew up in a small rural Irish town, and I knew I didn’t belong there or in school. When I was in my early teens, I would occasionally go to work with my uncles in Dublin. We would drive past NCAD and I would wonder, what is that place and and how do I get there? I could feel the energy of the cool art students walking in and out, and I knew that’s where I could find my people.

Swamp

I didn’t want to finish school, I wanted to make art. When I was 15, I got a kind of apprenticeship with a French-Tunisian lady named Veronique Didi who ran a small business painting silk, mostly scarves and ties. With her, I learned about colour, form, composition, working to a deadline, and North African and Arabic visual languages.

I then went on to Ballyfermot College, BCFE, with the intention of consolidating my portfolio before applying to art school. One of the tutors from the animation department, Paula Jane Shuter, persuaded me to enrol in classical animation. Under her teaching, I shaped my discipline and drawing skills. I also met Gisli Halldorsson and Steve McCarthy whom I’m still friends with today.

Fault Line

I studied Fine Art Painting at NCAD, getting a BFA and then a Master of Fine Art, MFA. Studying painting at this level was a privilege. The people, library, parties – it was all formative to becoming an artist. Specifically, learning how to research and follow an idea. I was lucky that the group was also super focused. They included Marcel Vidal, Frank Wasser, Sam Keogh and Ingrid Lyons. We interrogated what it means to be an artist, what’s at stake, and how many sacrifices you’re willing to make to succeed. At that time, it was an all-or-nothing pursuit. We built a community and became part of the larger art world.

Estuary

I’m fortunate that my “artistic journey” continues. I have multiple galleries representing my work in Ireland and internationally, and the fantastic people who work at these galleries take care of the more tricky aspects of being an artist. Inspiration, wonder and curiosity all inhabit the ordinary. My wife Helen, our daughter Venus and dog Biscuit are the bright stars of influence on my work now.

How and where do you work?

I work from Glendarragh Studios in Co Wicklow. The studio is a place to be irresponsible, reckless and experiment. Although the routine is ordered, the creative process is free and open to any possibility. I use all mediums – oil, watercolour, pencil, paper, linen, charcoal, collage, photos, fragments of dreams and daydreams – whatever feels right at the time. I feel like the paintings I make run ahead of me and I try to catch up with them. There’s an ambivalence where, on the one hand, I try to ground the paintings while, on the other hand, embracing failure. That’s what I search for in the creative process.

Voyage

Could you tell us about your new exhibition?

The paintings that I make are about organising and understanding the world. I usually spend about two years putting together a new body of work. My new show is part of an extended series of paintings.  My new paintings are incongruous landscapes that use the Hudson River School painters as a jumping-off point for the idea. These painters were working in the 19th century and made almost twee “chocolate box” imagery of the open American west, or the “New World”. They presented an uninhabited, endless west, ready to be colonised. I particularly like that these paintings were made by the artists around the Hudson River making sketches and taking notes of various areas of interest. It struck me that these paintings are not a representation of a real place; they are an illusion.

Oasis

What do you hope visitors will take away from this exhibition?

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