The Line Has Two Sides

Arts for Health team artist Sharon Dipity is announced as ​Bealtaine / Cork County Council / Uillinn Artist in Residence 2023.

Taking place from 3 May to 3 June and organised in association with Age & Opportunity’s nationwide Bealtaine Festival which celebrates the arts and creativity as we age, this residency supports artists seeking opportunities to research and develop their practice and to engage with Uillinn, local communities and the general public.

Sharon Dipity’s project is called The Line Has Two Sides and she will share her work with the public via several events over the course of the residency including a workshop and drop-in collaborations (see below for more details).

Describing what she hopes to achieve during her residency at Uillinn, Sharon says ‘My ambition for the Bealtaine residency is to develop the drawn line through mark-making, movement and word using different parts of my body to draw and move with. I want to revisit some of the performance pieces I made during my research project Following the Line funded by a Cork County Council Artist Bursary in 2022. This project focused on developing a performative aspect to my practice and the creation of ‘the drawn line’ through task-based performance art. I want to bring my learnings from the physical performance back to drawing on paper.  I will also continue to make and use natural brushes and collect found objects to draw with. I want the marks and the movements I make to be inspired by the qualities of the drawing tool I am using, for the drawings to take on the quality of the feather, the marram grass or whatever I am using.

I am particularly interested in translating my body’s movement to the page, the movement of the tracings made with my body, and working with other elements that have come into play during my research, including the wind and the tide. I have been working a lot with constraints and in The Line Has Two Sides, I will be looking at my body’s limitations as a constraint and developing movement and drawing from this. I particularly want to look at creating movement with an older body, to embrace and transcend its limitations and old injuries, to create my own fluid vocabulary of movement and gesture.’

Bealtaine Roots & Shoots, The Line Has Two Sides 
Tuesday 16 May, 6.30pm to 8pm

This workshop is presented in partnership with Cork County Council and Age & Opportunity for Bealtaine 2023.
Sharon invites participants to explore mark-making, movement and writing using a variety of drawing tools asking the question How does it affect the way we draw if we translate our movement and body experience into mark-making?

No experience necessary. Wear comfortable clothes, that you are happy to get dirty.
Free of charge but booking essential. Book here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/bealtaine-roots-shoots-the-line-has-two-sides-with-sharon-dipity-tickets-603497004787

Thank Uillinn it’s Friday! Drop-in drawing collaboration

Friday’s from 5 to 26 May, 10 am – 4.30pm

Sharon is opening her studio and inviting the public to drop-in and collaborate with her in drawing and mark-making. Focusing on drawing from the inside out and a variety of drawing tools she will be exploring different ways to draw. Join her to create a small drawing to add to a collective wall-piece.

No drawing experience necessary. Perfect for those who can’t draw a straight line.

Sharon Dipity is a multi-disciplinary visual artist. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Scenography from UCE, Birmingham and a BA Honours Degree in Textiles from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Recent achievements include Leap of Faith, a solo exhibition/residency at Working Artist Studios, Ballydehob (2019); One rung on the ladder, a solo exhibition at Clonakilty Arts Centre (2018) and Journeys, a commission for Blackrock Hall Primary Care Centre, Cork (2015). She has been awarded residencies at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry, Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, WCEC BLAST and Teacher Artist Partnership Residencies (2023, 2021, 2020). She has been an artist practitioner with the Arts for Health Programme, West Cork since 2007. In 2022 received an Arts Council Agility Award, and a Cork County Council Artist Bursary.