Pauline Conroy
Finding Home

Pauline Conroy

Finding Home

3 to 29 November 2025

Studio open to the public on Thursday and Friday

Finding and making home is the theme for Pauline’s residency. She will begin making a ‘painting with fabric’, a textile wall hanging that will celebrate where she lives, Skibbereen. By engaging with diverse groups from the local community, Pauline plans to gather stories from Irish – and particularly, West Cork – folklore. She transposes these tales to highlight current issues of displacement and homelessness, and the basic human need to create a sense of home wherever they may be. By working in fabric, Pauline emphasises the role of women in the making of both cloth and of the home, from ancient times to the present day.

Pauline aims to use the residency space to explore, research, and gather materials, to meet people and share stories, and to begin work on a textile wall hanging. Pauline has been ‘painting with fabric’ for several years. She intends to source information from historians/folklorists, the Heritage Centre , the library, the bookshops and any other local based sources that may be of value to her.

Her art always has underlining themes that shine a light on social issues and injustice.
She is currently inspired by the resonances between ancient mythology and current social issues such as homelessness, displacement and emigration to acknowledge these injustices. She believes strongly in the positive impact creating art can have on a individual and community.

‘I am currently getting inspiration from ancient Irish mythology and from living in such close proximity to the sea. I interweave these stories on to current world issues and what it’s like to be a human being living in Skibbereen today. Displacement and homelessness are issues that affect many people in our community today. I source my fabric from old curtain samples, old clothes and charity shop finds. I then design, compose stitch, machine sew, embroider and crochet my creations. These are mainly women pursuits and I honour these skills. As an older woman, a mother, and an artist, my art is informed by my perceived place in the society, where I currently live and how the constructs of society have impacted and engineered my beliefs.’

I moved to Skibbereen with my family about four years ago, from Co. Laois. Although I have always been creative as a hobby, I never considered myself an artist until I became immersed in the creative world of West Cork, particularly the wonderful, supportive people I’ve met through the Art and Design course in West Cork College, Skibbereen, and the W.A.S. gallery in Ballydehob. This sense of community is at the crux of my art – I am inspired by a sense of social and communal responsibility, informed by my career as a social worker with refugee children in the 1980s in London, and later in disability services in Ireland. My art is also firmly grounded in Ireland – its modern social constructs, its old stories and myths, and my lived experience here as a woman and mother.

instagram: @pollyconroyartist

Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre acknowledges the financial support of The Arts Council  / An Chomhairle Ealaíon in making these residencies possible.