Ann Mechelinck – Biography

 

Originally from Belgium, Ann came to live in Ireland in 2005. Coming from a traditional background where artistic dreams were something to be pursued ‘on the side’, for many years her creativity remained what it was: a hobby.

In 2009 she decided to stop waiting for the 'right time' to fulfil her childhood dream and set off on her creative journey, studying an Arts, Crafts and Design course at McEgan College Macroom, followed by a Professional Painting course at St. John's College in Cork, to finally graduate in 2015 in Applied Arts - Textiles at the Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork. The first to graduate in that direction ever!

Since 2017 Ann is working full-time as a self-employed artist. Centred around emotions of loss, love, grief, hope…her practise is a never ceasing journey of exploring materials such as rope, paper, yarns… and favours traditional processes like hand-sewing, -stitching and -weaving. Her textile work has been exhibited nationally and internationally as far as Japan and the Ukraine.

 

 

 

 

Ann Mechelinck – Artist statement

Being confined at home during the lockdown, I was given the time to refocus on the beauty of where I live – a rural area in West Cork. Moss and lichens became my focus and while exploring and interpreting these tiny organisms, their purpose, their meaning, their colours and textures… I became more and more conscious of nature's power and ability to regenerate.

These gloomy times made many of us look through our own biases, our lives and our challenges from different perspectives. Despite being physically separated, people displayed resilience and an ability to revitalise themselves and other by signing on their balconies, clapping in the streets, performing from their homes… Signs of how we can engage and work well together despite our differences, tiny rays of hope, testimonies of how, in times of need, small things can have a big impact and how each of us and the way we behave and interact with others impacts ourselves, the people around us and eventually ripples even further than our immediate surroundings.

I believe more than ever that traditional skills such as weaving and embroidery, passed from generation to generation, need to kept alive in today’s day and age where everything has become mechanised or computerised. For that reason, I deliberately work solely by hand, nurturing a slower pace of life and a more conscious way of living and working, merging traditional techniques into contemporary, abstract artworks.

This work is all about going back-to-basics, appreciating and embracing the small things in life, while the colour palette of greens represents hope, growth and harmony, inspired by the Irish landscape and nature’s resilience and ability to recover.