Caroline Byrne

Biography

Caroline Byrne completed her degree in Art/Design with DIT in 1991. Following a 3 year period of drawing and writing, she spent five years in San Francicso working as a graphic designer and illustrator. She completed a Masters in Illustration at the Edinburgh College of Art in 2002 and joined the Black Church Print Studio in 2004. In 2015 Byrne created the programme ‘Connection to Time and Place’. This programme engages communities imaginatively in the world around them using natural materials reflective of the time of year. It takes place in kindergartens, wild spaces and primary schools around the city. Byrne has been teaching bookbinding and relief printmaking at the Black Church Print Studio since 2007. She is currently a board member of the Black Church Print Studio and is developing their education programme. Her work is held in private and public collections including including the OPW and The National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL), at the National College of Art and Design.

Statement

‘Home‘ is where we all are at the moment. A physical space but also our safe/uncertain place.

For me home has always been more than the four walls. It has been a living entity in itself. As we grow and change so does our home. Its walls protect, sooth, it hears all our laughs and tears and absorbs without judgement through its silent presence. It welcomes us every day and facilitates our journey into our other world of dreams every night. ‘Home’ is where we all are at the moment.

Living by a river in the city Byrne’s work is inspired by home, and the natural world all around us. These images reflect an aspiration for a more peaceful co existence between mankind and the earth which sustains us.

Byrne reuses parts of old printing plates, paper off cuts and mixes print and drawing techniques to create this new work.