So delighted to have been invited to show this body of work at the United Irish Cultural Center in San Francisco in March 2022 as part of the St. Patrick's day celebrations in the city. This body of work, which is a series of portraits of elderly rural people from Co. Laois, is an artistic overview of the disappearing way of rural Irish life in the 21st Century. Using photography and film it focuses on how the process of documentation and storytelling can itself create space, physically and emotionally, for real dialogue and to tell peoples stories - past and present.

The show was originally planned for March 2020 but for pandemic reasons it was postponed until 2022.

It's production wouldn't  have been possible however with out the generous support of FBD insurance and Creative Laois, and it would never have made its way as a cultural export to the United States without the assistance of Culture Ireland and their invaluable support in promoting the Irish arts abroad.

 Well as the pandemic slowly begins to become a thing in the past - thought I'd better put up a posts of a very cool project that did actually manage to ahead in the last 12 months. Funded by The National youth Council of Ireland I worked with the 3rd Laois Durrow Scouts group I got to play out in the woods by   facilitating arts workshops - a great example of  using creativity to celebrate nature ... and here are two short movies that we made! First one is Land Art made in the dark!

......and second one brings nature form the outside world inside!

 Delighted to get some publicity in this weeks paper for my ongoing project  “Coping with Covid” which  document first hand accounts (positive and negative) of people in Laois living within a pandemic by creating a visual document of this strange time in our history.
Check out the full article here https://www.leinsterexpress.ie/news/news/610353/life-in-laois-during-covid-19-pandemic.html

Well woke this morning in a bad ol' Covid mood- no walks or pool swims this week due to February feckin'' freeze-inness and  being generally fed up of it all....and then look at what the post man brought to our door...A LETTER FROM THE MAN HIMSELF- SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH !!
We are beyond thrilled!!! The bairns, after a bit of encouragement and fed up with lock down inactivity, penned a letter to himself last month and sent him some pics of themselves (below) taken a few years ago at the beginning  of my People Against Plastic campaign. They thanked him for for just being himself and he, being the wonderful human that he is, wrote back!
Love n light from the much cheered up Holland-Romes xxx

Yes that figure is correct…. people in the medical profession have to use disposable masks but no excuse for the rest of us…. and the surge in disposable mask use came at a time when we are clearly drowning in plastic. Single-use surgical masks caused "enormous" plastic waste, also they cannot be recycled through conventional recycling facilities so they are basically LANDFILL.
It was great late last year (in between lock-downs) to meet with  the T.Y. students at Our Lady’s Bower secondary school in Athlone where together spent a morning making masks from their single use plastic whilst informing, guiding and listening to their thoughts about new ways to reduce plastic in their everyday lives.

 Well after putting up the Children of the free state photographic exhibition it was disappointing that it couldn't open due to a 2 week lock-down in Laois. Now I am  happy to report that the Dunamaise Arts centre is open to the public again and you can go check it out in the flesh or failing that check it out here.. https://vimeo.com/443353340 .
Thank you to Creative Ireland Laois and FBD Insurances for their support and to all my wonderful elderly neighbours for telling me their stories.

Well its up!  Children of the Free State exhibition of photographic portraits of my elderly neighbours is going to be the first Post- Covid exhibition at The Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise as part of the Laois Heritage week. Using photography and video - this body of work focuses on how the process of documentation and storytelling can itself create space, physically and emotionally, for real dialogue and the narration of personal stories - past and present
However due to Laois being currently in lock-down the show wont open for a further 2 weeks but good news is that will  still run for a month thereafter meaning that it will be up for Culture night in September.  in the meantime here a sneaky preview of what to expect.....I'll be in touch again with opening dates when I have them!
https://vimeo.com/443353340
Supported by Dunamaise Arts Centre and Creative Ireland Laois,

CHECK OUT THIS wonderful T.V. documentary inspired by the roll-out of Creative Schools, a pilot project focusing on creativity and the Arts in primary and secondary schools all around Ireland. For my role I was invited to create head-dresses from single use plastic with the students from Stepaside Educate Together and I worked with them to create, innovate and responsibly reuse, reduce or replace plastics in their everyday lives. Great working with Anna Rodgers and Aoife Kavanagh ......First in a 3-part series.
https://www.rte.ie/player/series/creative-kids/SI0000006920?epguid=IP000065210 

Really delighted to have documented and curated this photo exhibition at Nenagh CTC calld The Salmon’s Wake whic is part of the Ilen Project’s 2019/20 Community and Schools Educational Programme. Summer 2019 saw an epic ocean voyage from Limerick city to the west coast of Greenland with woodcraft created by a group of Learners at Nenagh Community Training Centre (CTC) crossing the Arctic Circle.
 
Under the supervision of the expert boat builders of the Ilen Project, and their woodwork and Art instructor at our John’s Lane facility, since March of this year, the Learners of Nenagh CTC have been assigned the task of restoring the ‘Angling cot’ and creating the poles, paddles & oars, which were gifted to the local community in Nuuk. So if you are the  hood please do come along this Friday night 6-8 pm in Nenagh and see a the expo and a short movie I  created documenting the project.

Once again after everyone has left the site, we see the same scenario at the Electric Picnic as previous years. It is heartbreaking to see the utter waste and total chaos after the departure of festival goers. Is the Electric Picnic going to confront this problem - or once again stick its head in the mountain of rubbish whilst counting its soiled profits..

Here's an idea...As it seems that many of the folks attending EP have a total and utter disregard for their own space, then let's throw the responsibility back at the Electric Picnic itself. To tackle the cheap tents, cheap sleeping bags and throwaway culture - charge an entry deposit of 25 Euro per person, returnable when evidence is shown on departure, of sleeping bags, mats and tents being taken away.

Yes, yes but how much more time and money this would take...
You have the profits and even if you lose a number of previous customers, you may well gain new ones who will only admire the stance that EP has taken to tackle its dirty post-festival image.

​

A great weekend meeting lots of good people at The Global green @ Electric Picnic 2019! Thanks to my wonderful crew at TITS UP and to Global Green! Here is a small selection of the fun but please go to www.peopleagainstplastic.ie to see the lot and download your portrait if you stopped by........

Delighted to be invited to the Elements of change Festival at Cloughjordan Eco village last Saturday. We brought our TITS UP Photo booth ( acromym for This Is The Single Use Plastic Photo Booth)  to the event, and it was great to see old faces and meet lots of new ones. Got conversations going about ways to edge our way out of this plastic crisis and had lots of fun too too! Thanks so much to Cloughjordan Eco village for hosting such a great event and to the wonderful Tina Claffey, Mimi Doran and Freya Holland-Rome for all their help on the day! Portraits can be viewed at www.anniehollandart.com on the homepage.

Well one again I find myself very happily BLOWN AWAY by the creativity and enthusiasm of young people at Stepaside Educate Together. YES there is an environmental crisis going on IT'S REALLY HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!
Not only did these young people really grasp the nature of the head-dress workshop (i.e. making head-dresses from their own single  use plastic), but they also organized a fashion show where participants wore their head-dresses and paraded in front of their school to the backing sound track of  Talking Heads - "Road to no-where" and recited a poem they created from a play on David Byrne's lyrics about global warming and the current plastic crisis that the world is experiencing. The whole schools end of year festival was a zero waste event and a joy to be a part of!
Thanks to Alice O' Conor (teacher), Mimi Doran (creative associate) , all the staff and young people at Stepaside educate- together and Creative Schools Ireland  http://www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/. Further thanks to the RTE team who are shooting a documentary on the creative schools invaluable programme which has afforded me the opportunity to work in this capacity because although  educators value creativity in the classroom -  they don't always have time to prioritize it!

Well as the bank holiday draws to a close and I am packing my tools and getting ready to start another creative workshop at St Marys's secondary school in Edenderry in Offaly tomorrow.
 
No doubt we will be discussing the report released today by the UN's Global Assessment which has highlighted the distressing impact that humanity is having on the natural world - species are being lost at the fastest ever rate, mainly driven by the changing use of land.
 
As a society we are overwhelmed by media stories with their sad images of death and choked oceans and it’s easy to feel as if individual and local actions won’t matter. It’s sometimes hard to have these discussions with young people without upsetting them but I aim to offer hope through creativity and discussion. Without doubt rapid action is needed at a political level to avoid an ecological disaster however I firmly believe individual actions can still matter.
 
REDUCE, RE-USE and REFUSE TO USE Single Use Plastic.

Oops just realized that I never actually posted about this wonderful exposure for our recent snake project . Really relevant when we consider that Ireland is the top producer of plastic waste in Europe; generating an average of 61kgs per person every year - almost double what the UK produces. - We produce the equivalent of nearly 2,000 water bottles per person per year- these young people were particularly shocked and really want to do something about it!  Great to be in a position to give them a voice and to have it heard!
Please check out the link below.
http://www.rte.ie/news/player/2019/0403/21534488-students-say-no-to-use-of-plastic-in-school-lunches/

Half term........ loved it so nice to switch off the engine and just kick back in the garden .... but seeing as I am already sitting at a computer again preparing to  start a new project next week here's a few pics from most recent creative residency at St Fintan's High School Sutton  where I met a wonderful art teacher called Ruth Barry who was hosting a school arts week. I was invited to create some new single use plastic headdresses with the TY students and we even made it out for some fresh air and a short beach clean up too.

Thanks to everyone who came to St. Patricks cathedral last evening and despite the heavy rain we has a great evening! In addition to  helping to create the  "Single Use Plastic Snake" project, the young people at  CMS Learning centre in D8 created a series of posters to advertise last nights performance at St Patrick's cathedral. These bright and colourful posters show headdresses made in workshops, over the past month by the teenagers involved,  and offer bold visual alternatives to using so much plastic. They were all too shy, apart from one, to feature on the posters so teachers and myself took the glory. The posters will adorn the streets of Dublin for next 2 weeks, and will we hope, further drive home the message REDUCE, RE-USE AND REFUSE TO USE!
Listen to the kids folks- their words not mine!

Well another long day yesterday ...packed the van with 30ft snake in kit form  and left home just before 6am to reach Dublin in time for an early visit from RTE news team at Francis St CBS.  Kids were sooooo excited to showcase their work and spoke really well.. I got a few words in too so all good. Then a long afternoon spent in St Patrick's Cathedral majestic space assembling the single use plastic monster that we have been working on for the past 3 months. And it worked!!!! Thanks to the the children of D8 for their enthusiasm, Marc Rome (patience and amazing building skills), Kelley Bermingham and team at St Patricks's, Eoghan Desmond  (plastic song composer ) and Eddie McGuinness ( talented choreographer) . Performance is tonight at 6.45 in the cathedral FREE tickets must  be downloaded  from their site in advance .... If yews in Dublin please do drop in and  hear the voice of Dublin's youth screaming NO to having their (government provided) school luches food wrapped in single use plastic.

Well the final countdown.... last week of building scales with these talented young creative wonderful minds..
I also was invited to St. Canices BNS in Finglas.. where Miss Bolger's 1st class boys had saved 350 bottles in their class room from their government supplied school lunches. A great lesson on her part to show the boys how quickly it all piles up and doesn't just magically disappear!
Back in in D8 with Miss Whyte's class at Francis St CBS we also got  to try to the carcass of the snake for size and I showed the children development pictures of the snakes head which is currently being sprayed by Marc in our polly-tunnel at home in Laois.
Kelly Bermingham from St Patrick's cathedral also came in to visit and we had a rehearsal of the song " Plastic" created by Eoghan Desmond. This song  will be  performed by the local schools ( St Brigid's, St. Enda's, Francis St CBS, Warrenmount and the D8 scouts) who have also participated , alongside with presentation of the snake in in the Cathedral next Thursday night at 6pm! FREE tickets shave to pre-booked on line just click here folks https://stpatrickscathedral.digitickets.co.uk/event-tickets/21373?branches.branchID=1045&_ga=2.14025591.1782793719.1554043697-1996397658.1554043697
PLEASE DO COME ALONG FOR WHAT PROMISES TO BE A GREAT EVENING!

Well another great week working with the young people of Dublin 8- CMS Learning centre, St Francis CBS and the YMCA after school group. While the snake's head has to be structurally built at home - due to its size ( I hope it will fit out the studio door), it was full steam ahead with sorting plastics and building scales in Dublin. Then later in the day we had some great drawings and quotes from the after school group. I feel very privileged to be working with such wonderful enthusiastic young people and also great to hear that thousands of school pupils worldwide have abandoned classrooms for another day of protest against climate change.