Artist honoured for evoking powerfulness of place

Áine Ryan

BALLINTUBBER-born artist Helen O’Toole (pictured) has been awarded the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, which includes a $50,000 grant. The award is due to be presented to her at a ceremony in New York tonight (Tuesday).
The former student of Sligo RTC (Regional Technical College) and NCAD (National College of Art and Design) will now have the opportunity to take time out, to work on her art, from her busy position as Professor of Art at the University of Washington.
O’Toole has exhibited her all over the world, with her work featuring in several international exhibitions, including shows in Ireland and in Singapore, where her uncle, famous sculptor, Brother Joseph McNally of the De La Salle order, lived.
O’Toole’s paintings evoke ‘the powerful implications of dwelling and place’. They are influenced by ‘the vastness and isolation of the landscape in which she grew up: the measured pace of working, the slow yielding of the ground, and the daily rhythm of life on a farm in County Mayo, Ireland’.
The Guggenheim Foundation citation also states that her ‘work pays tribute to the memories, stories, and histories of the locale’.
“The west of Ireland continues to be deceptive in its beauty and easy absorption by the eye,” the foundation’s citation continues.
Helen O’Toole is the daughter of Teresa and Liam O’Toole, a well-known Ballintubber family.