Life is work and work is life for artist Dubhaltach Ó Colmáin, who uses a multi-disciplinary approach to his sculptural work and has become fascinated with the process of working with metal, which he views as a metaphor for life; gouging into, melting down, deconstructing and reassembling a hard, cold, resisting material until it becomes something warm, familiar and meaningful.
At the West Cork Creates ‘Making Connections’ exhibition this year, Ó Colmáin will be showing some of his most recent steel sculptures, which are a composition of shapes, figures and symbols that tell a story and invoke a feeling of the scale of history and human interaction with the natural world. “They are a little difficult to explain,” he says “you’ll have to come and see them! I will also be showing a life size, steel impression of a pig that I hope brings as much joy to viewers and visitors to the exhibition as it does to me!”
Ó Colmáin is always honing and developing his skills and abilities, moving from project to project. After completing the art course at Rossa College in Skibbereen, he went to Brennan Mill Craft School in Co. Kilkenny. He had his first studio at the age of 20 and has been and is a part of several arts collectives, including the Working Artist Studios in Ballydehob run by his parents, both artists.
Utilising several materials in his work, including bronze, copper, lead, aluminium and scrap, as well as wire, wood, stone, plaster, resin and paper and pencil, the artist is led by his imagination, using mythology and storytelling to create his pieces.
No surprise then that his influences, apart from his parents, include Arthur Rackham, Brian Froud and Giacometti, and he’s also a fan of 2000AD comics. “I love the composition of their storyboards and use of artists’ different styles,” he says.
In Ó Colmáin’s world, creativity and invention are one and the same and he believes that everybody can find a way to access this. Aside from his sculptures, he has also written and/or illustrated several books, which is work that he loves doing.
While his work is in demand, for Ó Colmáin, like so many artists, the greatest challenge is having the confidence to keep creating. “To know that I’m doing the ‘right thing’ – to persist even in times when there is no money coming in,” he explains.
But West Cork is a favourable environment for an artist and Ó Colmáin has a good support network of peers, which he says is essential for just keeping going and for building confidence.
When he’s not keeping busy making things, he also loves going out to sea in his boat.
Ó Colmáin is currently exhibiting in Working Artist Studios in Balydehob and is participating in the West Cork Creates show in Cnoc Buí, Union Hall.
