Sharon Dipity
Bealtaine / Cork County Council / Uillinn Artist in Residence 2023
3 May to 3 June 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. The award includes a studio space for 4 weeks at Uillinn and a stipend of €2,500.

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 the  events below:-

Thank Uillinn it’s Friday!   
Fridays from 5 to 26 May, 10am to 4.30pm

Sharon invites the public to drop-in to Studio 1 on Fridays during her residency, and collaborate with her in drawing and mark-making. Focusing on drawing from the inside out and a variety of drawing tools, she will explore 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.

Bealtaine Roots & Shoots
The line has two sides with Sharon Dipity
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

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.'

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.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharondipity_art/

Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/Sharon-Dipity-Artist-492128564178679/ 

 

 

Sharon Dipity
Chance encounters / en-counter balancE
14 February to 2 April 2022

Drop into Studio 1 on Friday 1 April between 12.30 pm and 2.30pm to encounter some of the outcomes of Sharon Dipity’s investigation into chance versus choice during her residency at Uillinn. Sharon will be present in the studio to share some of the processes and findings of her experiments.

Sharon Dipity is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her practice is enveloped in the process, it is experimental and playful, embracing chance, none the less it is careful and mindful. For this residency she will focus on her drawing practice in relation to chance versus choice.

Serendipitous happenings are an important aspect of my artistic process. I want to look at new ways to invite the element of chance into my drawing practice. I want the freedom to play and fully explore the creative drawing process without boundaries. Conversely, I want to add certain constraints to my process in order to instigate new ways of working. I want to explore how the various constraints and chance techniques impact the vocabulary and aesthetic of my drawings and mark-making.

Sharon will devise and create a number of tools, methods and structures for working with chance in her drawing practice using pre-determined instructions. She will reference how other artists, past and present, have engaged with chance and their means of doing so (e.g., John Cage’s Chance Operations). Sharon will consider, whether to consistently follow the structure and directives of the chosen method or to be selective with the rules.  As part of her research into ‘chance’, Sharon recently attended an on-line course: ‘Rules of the Game: Introduction to task-based performance and art’ taught by Dr. Katja Hilevaara for the ECC Performance Art organisation. This course examined the practice of using task-led activities and chance as a means to conceive and compose performance.

Sharon says: I have no expectation of outcomes other than to follow the journey and enjoy the process.

Creativity needs a balance of order and chaos - Herbert Lui.

Visitors to the studio will be invited to engage and influence this process by writing and submitting ‘rules’ via ‘chance’ cards for Sharon to choose to respond to.

She will invite some of our ongoing groups to engage with this process in, or after one of their sessions; and also the staff at Uillinn.

There will be a sharing of Sharon's work and learnings at the close of the residency.

Biography

Sharon Dipity is a multi-disciplinary visual artist. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Scenography from U.C.E, Birmingham and a B.A. Honours Degree in Textiles from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Recent achievements are: JOURNEYS, commission for Blackrock Hall Primary Care Centre, Cork(2015); Leap of Faith solo show/residency at Working Artist Studios (2019); One rung on the laddder Solo show, Clonakilty Arts Centre (2018); Residencies include: Ballinglen Arts Foundation Residency (2018) + Tyrone Guthrie Centre (2010) with bursaries from Cork County Council; Teacher Artist Partnership Residency (2021 and 2020); Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre (2016/17/18); Cill Rialaig, Co. Kerry (2011). She has been an artist practitioner with the Arts for Health Programme, West Cork since 2007. 
FACEBOOK 
INSTAGRAM 

 

Sharon Dipity
9 November 2017 to 26 January 2018
Studio open to the public on Wednesday and Saturdays from 12 noon.

Artist Sharon Dipity works across media, using; painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, printmaking, textiles, performance and participatory arts. This residency will allow Sharon time to consider the different elements of her practice as an artist, time to explore and develop her work with the aim of pulling some of the many different threads together, seeking cohesion and future direction.

She says ‘This will be a time of making and reflecting. I will begin working using medium of graphite pencil, ink, paint, wire, found materials and light and continue my exploration of the themes that preoccupy me to see where they lead. I am delighted to be in Uillinn for a further residency working alongside other artists and I’m especially looking forward to engaging with visitors to the studio.’

Sharon’s practice is enveloped in the process, it is experimental and playful, embracing chance, none the less it is careful and mindful. She draws inspiration from the environment, language and the current politics of the world in which we live: architecture, infrastructure, land and seascapes, often referencing the fairytales of her childhood. Communication, connection, journeys and destiny are recurring themes in her work, represented by ladders, bridges, telephone cables, pylons, satellite dishes and pathways.

Sharon Dipity holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Scenography from U.C.E, Birmingham and a B.A. Honours Degree in Textiles from Goldsmiths College, University of London. Sharon has exhibited in solo and group shows in Ireland and Europe. She is currently represented by The Twenty Twenty Art Gallery, Cork, where she has a showcase of new paintings on from 14 to 20 November 2017. In 2014, Sharon was commissioned by HSE South Cork Arts and Health Programme to create a series of artworks for Blackrock Hall Primary Care Centre. She has been awarded several arts residencies and grants including funding from Cork County Council and the Arts Council of Ireland. Sharon has extensive experience facilitating art sessions with young people and adults and has been working as an artist practitioner on the Arts for Health Partnership Programme since 2007.

You can follow Sharon’s progress on https://www.facebook.com/Sharon-Dipity-Artist-492128564178679/

Images:
Sharon Dipity_Still from Marking the Gull's Tide, performance Following the Line 2022
Sharon Dipity, Drawing with Heather.
Sharon Dipity, shadow drawing in progress, 2016. Photograph by Emma Jervis Photography, Image courtesy of Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre. 

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