Sonia Caldwell
16 October to 14 December, 2019
The studio will be open for people to interact and see and discuss the work on Thursdays from 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm.

Sonia is predominately a sculptor who works in stone, but who works out and develops her ideas in clay. During her time here at Uillinn Sonia plans on working more on clay figures both to develop her concepts and forms for her stonework but also to create fired ceramic figures as finished pieces in themselves. Sonia has been developing these ideas for many years in her sketchbooks and conceptually and will use this time here at Uillinn to bring them to fruition.

Many concepts she works on relate to various aspects of human interaction and behaviour and she wish to explore how she can develop ideas based around this with a series of multiple figures. ‘Our state of humanity is an area I am constantly studying. My interest in the human form goes beyond the physical form and inside to our complex emotional and spiritual needs, an area which I believe in some cases has now been left as a void with the move away from religion as well as a urban disconnect with nature.’

She will use her time here at Uillinn to experiment with materials and scale. After the residency she intends to continue the project by developing some of the figures into larger stone pieces back at her own studio.

Meet the Artist – Sonia Caldwell on Wednesday 30 October from 12 noon to 4 pm

Everyone welcome, children and adults (children must be accompanied by an adult). Drop in and see what Sonia is working on in her studio, chat to her about her process and development of her practice and join her in creating your own work.

Character in Clay - Childrens Workshop (for ages 7 to 12 years), Saturday 7 December, 11 am to 1 pm
€5 per person. Booking and payment essential to secure place, 02822090 or info@westcorkartscentre.com
After a short visit to Sonia’s studio at Uillinn she will go through the techniques for making figures in Clay and then using our own imaginations we will create our own figures during the workshop. Sonia works with the figure in stone and has exhibited her sculptures in various galleries. She has more recently started working with small clay figures and is currently working on these during her residency at Uillinn. Sonia also does workshops in primary schools on the heritage for school scheme with other natural materials and focuses on traditional crafts.

Sonia was born in Dublin in 1974 and after leaving school proceeded to do a certificate in Art and Design in the College of Marketing and Design in Dublin. She then worked in event design and explored her interest in Art Therapy and Community Arts as well as starting what was to become a strong interest in travel. During this time she continued to paint and exhibited in the Blue Leaf gallery in Dublin as well as other smaller venues. She began working with stone during a 3 month visit to Zimbabwe. In 2003 she moved from Dublin to Cork and settled in Kilcoe near Skibbereen. During these years she has created stone lettering work and smaller craft items. She exhibits each year in the annual Ballymaloe exhibition. Sonia was awarded an Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre/Cork County Council artist in residence award this year.

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council in making these residencies possible.