Anne Harrington Rees
From Kilkenny, Anne graduated in 1992 with an honours degree in Landscape Horticulture and in 2003, while living in Wales, completed a HND in Design Crafts. She moved back to Ireland in 2006 and now lives in West Cork. Anne’s fibre sculptures, which are inspired by naturally occurring forms, Irish folklore, architecture and vessels, have won awards and been selected for many exhibitions in the UK and Ireland. She has created work using relief printing techniques and, after recent courses in surface pattern design, now designs and sells a range of unique homewares, tote bags and artwork, featuring her bold, colourful images, inspired by West Cork nature. Anne also runs Luna’s Legacy Pet Commemoration design service, collaborating with families to create an artwork celebrating their life with a special companion animal. She is also one of Ireland’s first certified Green Sketching ambassadors/trainers – helping people to spend time outdoors, to use doodling as a way of seeing the beauty in nature, reducing stress, improving well-being and finding joy in the world around us.
Anne has run workshops for adults, worked in primary schools on a County Council funded residency and as part of the Crafts Council of Ireland’s ‘craftED’ and ‘Craft in the Classroom’ residencies; and with secondary school students on a Crafts Council of Ireland, Kilkenny County Council and Butler Gallery collaborative scheme (FACT). She has also run workshops in 3D construction with first year third level students. Her work has appeared in the Irish Times, Irish Examiner, BLUEPRINT, Irish Arts Review, House, and Country Homes and Interiors magazines and is in private collections in the UK and Ireland. Since Anne joined the Arts for Health Team in March 2010 she has worked with the hospital residents of St Anthony’s Community Hospital, Dunmanway and Mount Carmel Hospital, Clonakilty, as well as the Day Care Centre clients in Dunmanway, Skibbereen and Clonakilty.
‘I facilitate the participants in the use of a variety of materials and techniques during the art workshops. Project themes vary but I often use nature as a source of inspiration, to bring some of the outdoors inside. I also use poems or proverbs as a starting point, as well as participants’ own life stories.
I aim to include as many people as often as possible, be they in the communal day room or in bedrooms. This regular exposure to creative processes will, I hope, help to develop an interest in the arts, to overcome any reluctance to try something new by encouraging the residents and staff to take part in some way. For the participants, I see the art sessions as a means of escape from the hospital routine; a way of bringing elements of surprise and joy into their lives.’
Dreoilín, 2002, flax and raffia fibres, 3.5 x 4 x 4cm.
Sea Vessel, IV, 2010, dried kelp and waxed linen thread, 16 x 30 x 27cm.
Fuchsia Twig, 2022, cushion cover, 50 x 50cm.