About the Artist

I am an eco-system Bean Chaointe (Keening Woman) artist. I warn and mourn climate injustices for our planet writhing in pain. My aesthetic practice is informed by the mytho-poetic wisdom of my Irish Heritage and care for the land found in ancient Irish Brehon Law, contemporary Irish poetry and ecocriticism. Philosophy, climate science and the spirituality of resistance are important threads in my work. The practice of the Bean Chaointe, Keening Woman, is an ancient practice of lament, spontaneous poetry and witness. It is the speech act of women in times of social crisis. In holding space for eco-memory, eco-grief, & eco-care with my paintings, prints, artist books, installations and keening practices I create a space for the decolonization of imagination and invitation for climate justice.

I hold advanced degrees in Religious Studies, Theology and Trauma Nursing in addition to being the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, American Philosophical Field Research Grant and an NEA Colorado Career Advancement Award. For nearly a decade I lived and worked in the Alaskan and Canadian arctic with the Yupik, Swampy Cree and Metis respectively where I was gifted with learning the storytelling practices of indigenous healers and their wisdom of plant, animal and water balances. My Fulbright research revealed the diverse stories of Greenlandic Women Shamans and their healing practices. The richness of these experiences along with 25 years of practice as a Nurse Practitioner weaves a unique tapestry for my work as an artist. My art practice is best described by the Inukutitut word, ikiagivik which literally means to search across time and space, to breathe shape into all that is vanishing. To re-claim and reconceive resources that have been buried I founded the GRIEVING PLANET PROJECT in affirmation of my response to climate injustice. This project is my compass for the transformational pathway of lament, resilience, and response. The milieus my work creates offer safe space for eco-memory, eco-grief and eco-care, so the passion and compassion necessary for action to save what has not yet been lost can be found.