Artist statement

Being confined at home during the lockdown, I was given the time to (re)focus on the beauty of where I live – a rural area in West Cork. Drawn to moss and lichens, 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.

Despite being physically separated, people displayed a similar resilience and ability to revitalise themselves and others by singing on their balconies, clapping in the streets, performing from their homes… 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.

These gloomy times made many of us look through our own biases, our lives and our challenges from different perspectives. 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.

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. Inspired by nature and 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.

Artist CV

E-mail                                                                                 annmechelinck@hotmail.com

Website                                                                              annmechelinck.wixsite.com/artist

Facebook                                                                           www.facebook.com/ann.mechelinck

Instagram                                                                           www.instagram.com/annmechelinck

Education

2011 – 2015       BA in Applied Art – Textiles                       CIT - Crawford College of Art and Design– Cork

2010 – 2011       Professional Art Practice                          St. John’s College – Cork

2009 – 2010       Arts, crafts and design                             McEgan College – Cork

Awards

2021             The Art of Isolation // Recognized for Distinctive Interpretation of Theme Green                                                    Best in Show Award (solo-exhibition and 6page feature in gallery table book)

Nature Art                                                   Honourable Mention

2019                   Cadenza                                                     Long Note Award

2015                   Degree Show – CCAD                               CIT Purchase Prize

2015                   Degree Show – CCAD                               Eli Lilly Purchase Prize

2015                   Degree Show – CCAD                               Textiles Residency Award CCAD

Exhibitions

2021                  

The Art of Isolation                             online exhibition with Shanti Arts – USA (from June 1st)

OSCA Spring Exhibition online exhibition with Open School of Creative Arts and Well being - UK

Alone Together                                           online exhibition curated by Shannon Skye Robinson - UK

Green                                                         online exhibition with The Artist's Circle Gallery - USA

Nature Art                                                   online exhibition with Grey Cube Gallery – international online platform

5th Annual Colors Art Exhibition                 online exhibition with Fusion.Art Gallery – USA

Make something that makes you feel good        online exhibition with LUVA Gallery - UK

Being Human                                              online exhibition with Pepney Gallery - Ireland

Affinity                                                        online exhibition with Pepney Gallery - Ireland

2020                  

Ongoing since November 2020                           Galerie Kunstlokaal Kerkrade – The Netherlands

Scythia - 13th Textile Biennial                           Ukraine

Positive Pandemic Experience PPE       online exhibition via Instagram

The abandoned project                              online exhibition with Cork Textiles Network - Ireland

Renewed awareness                                  online exhibition with Global Artists' Collaboration Platform

A light in the dark                                        online exhibition with Las Laguna Gallery - Laguna Beach, USA

Covid19. The art of isolation / survey 2             online exhibition with Curator's Voice Art Projects - Miami, USA

Celebrating our strength in our diversity online exhibition with Doncaster Art Fair

Post-Covid-19 Era                                      online exhibition with Independent Image and Art Space -China

The virtual Art Fair                                      online exhibition with The Virtual Art Fair - UK

2019                  

Cadenza exhibition                                     Cork Textiles Network - Cork School of Music, Ireland

'Making and mending my way through' Solo-exhibition - Macroom, Ireland and Vilnius, Lithuania

Paintings by local recreational artists    Town Hall Macroom, Ireland - Tutor and curator

2018                  

Small Steps Art Activism Exhibition           North Docks - Liverpool - UK

Paintings by local recreational artists    Town Hall Macroom, Ireland - Tutor and curator

2017                  

Paintings art group Father Ryan Hall       Library Macroom, Ireland - Tutor and curator

Paintings by local recreational artists    Town Hall Macroom, Ireland - Tutor and curator

2016                  

'Affective Entities' Exhibition                          Wandesford Gallery – Cork, Ireland – Participating artist and co-curator

Create 2016 - Gallery of Found Art                Brown Thomas - Cork - Ireland

2015                  

Emerging Artists' Exhibition                           St. Patrick’s University Hospital - Dublin - Ireland

'Fledglings ’15' Exhibition                            Lavit Gallery – Cork - Ireland

‘We Do Not Leave Piramids’                           Degree show - CCAD - Cork - Ireland

'Nexus – paper' Exhibition                           Kurogawa INN Museum – Fukuoka – Japan

2014                  

'Things/Daktai' Exhibition                                         Wandesford Gallery – Cork - Ireland

Camac Student Textile Design Challenge                 Warner Textile Archive Braintree – Essex – UK

2013                  

Camac Student Textile Design Challenge                        Warner Textile Archive Braintree – Essex – UK

Catalogues, articles and books

2021                  

Small Things                                                        Article in tinyStudio Creative Life Magazine Issue 10 New Zealand

Zielone Krajobrazy                                               Article in Florysta - Floral and Art Magazine - Poland

2020                  

Scythia - 13th Textile Biennial – Ukraine              https://scythiatextile.com/scythia-2020.html

Global Artists' Collaboration Platform        https://www.bettertogetherartists.net/

Las Laguna Gallery - Laguna Beach, USA            https://www.laslagunagallery.com/light

Curator's Voice Art Projects - Miami, USA        https://curatorsvoice.com/covid19/surve2/

Doncaster Art Fair – UK                                         https://www.doncasterartfair.com/

Independent Image and Art Space -China              https://www.independentimage.org/

The virtual Art Fair – UK                                          https://www.artsteps.com (TVAF)

2019                  

My art… pulled me through depression                       The Echo - July 3rd 2019

Small Steps events take over                           https://alisonlittleblog.wordpress.com/category/captivity/

2015                  

Stitch stories: Personal spaces and traces in textile art   Cas Holmes - Pavillion Books 2015

We do not leave pyramids                                        Degree show catalogue 2015

Fledglings '15                                                          Lavit Gallery -http://www.lavitgallery.com/page59.htm

Craft Words                                                             Perspectives on making by Frances McDonald

                                                                                 http://francesmmcdonald.com/tag/ann-mechelinck/

2014                 

Texere - Textiles Education and Research in Europe            http://www.texere-associ.org/newsletters/newslett-summer-2014.pdf

2013                  

Braintree Exhibition Success for CCAD Textiles Graduates           CCAD News May 19th 2013