Multidisciplinary Irish Visual Artist

About

Barbara Healy is an Irish Multidisciplinary ​Visual Artist and Art Director who is currently ​undertaking an MFA in Fine Art Painting at ​NCAD ('24-'25). She holds an MS.c in Creative ​Advertising from TUD and a BA in Fine Art ​Painting from NCAD.

Healy’s work explores diverse perspectives of ​time, investigating its interconnectedness with ​human temporal frameworks, geology, and ​technological advancements. Her ​neurodivergent, non-linear perspective of time ​serves as a lens to form new correlations.

Deep-Time ​to Real-​Time.

The proximity of Yosemite Valley and Silicon Valley ​offers a striking temporal contrast: Yosemite’s 100 ​million years of geological history versus Silicon ​Valley’s 50-year technological surge. Healy’s 2024 ​visit to both locations inspired an interdisciplinary ​approach, blending painting, digital images, ​installation, and sound.

Painting

Deep Time - Real Time Series

Untitled, 2024, Acrylic and spray Paint ​on canvas, 35 x 29 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Marble dust, acrylic, ​spray Paint and pigment on canvas, ​Dimensions: 45 x 40 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Marble dust, acrylic, ​spray paint and pigment on ​canvas, 45 x 45 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Marble Dust, acrylic, ​spray paint and pigment on ​canvas, 60 x 50 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Marble dust, acrylic and ​spray paint on canvas, 45 x 40 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Marble dust, acrylic, ​spray paint and pigment on Canvas, ​Dimensions: 60 x 50 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Medium: Marble dust, ​acrylic, spray paint and pigment on ​canvas, 60 x 50 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Acrylic and spray ​paint on canvas, 35 x 29 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Marble dust, acrylic, ​spray paint and pigment on Canvas, ​Dimensions: 60 x 50 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Acrylic, spray paint ​and pigment on canvas, 35 x 29 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Marble dust, acrylic, ​spray paint and pigment on Canvas, ​Dimensions: 60 x 50 cm

Untitled, 2024, Acrylic Paint on ​canvas, 35 x 29 cm.

Digital Image

Deep Time - Real Time Series

Untitled, 2024, Digital print on ​archival paper, 84.1 x 59.4 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Digital print on ​Fabriano paper, 42 x 29.7 cm.

Untitled, 2024,Digital print on ​archival paper, 42 x29.7 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Digital print on ​Fabriano paper, 42 x 29.7 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Digital print on ​Fabriano paper, 42 x 29.7 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Digital print on ​Fabriano paper, 42 x 29.7 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Photographic ​print on archival paper

42 x 59.4 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Digital print on ​Fabriano paper, 42 x 29.7 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Digital print on ​Fabriano paper, 42 x 29.7 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Digital print on ​Fabriano paper, 42 x 29.7 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Digital print on ​Fabriano paper, 42 x 29.7 cm.

Untitled, 2024, Digital print on ​Fabriano paper, 42 x 29.7 cm.

Bit-Mya, 2024, Digital Ambient Sound Composition, 2 mins

Timefulness (Shake-Eon), 2024, Digital Ambient Sound ​Composition, 28 mins

Composed of field recordings from Yosemite Valley and Silicon Valley, California, March/April 2024

Artist Statement

The proximity of Yosemite National Park to Silicon Valley in California highlights a profound divergence in their temporal scales. Yosemite offers ​105 million years of geological history, an expanse of deep time beyond human comprehension. In contrast, Silicon Valley, a hub of technological ​innovation, has evolved over a mere 50 years of rapid acceleration. I visited both Yosemite and Silicone Valley in March 2024 to document the ​stark contrast between these environments, offering unique temporalities. This experience deepened my understanding of time perception, ​societal rhythms, and the interplay between nature and technology. A representation of the fleeting nature of human endeavour, in the grand ​scheme of geological eons. A palimpsest of deep-time and real-time landscapes

At its core, my work seeks to explore diverse perspectives of time, by investigating its interconnectedness with human temporal frameworks, ​geology and technological advancements. My own neurodivergent non-linear perspective of time serves as a lens through which I aim to form ​new correlation. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, I amalgamate generative painting processes with contemporary digital technologies.

I have been engaging in experimentation with digital tools, hardware, and expanded painting techniques. The work takes form in media such as ​painting, photography, digital image and ambient sound. Colour is a critical element in my practice, I take the natural palette from Yosemite ​and contrast them with digital hues such as stereoscopic cyan and red. My acrylic based airbrushed paintings undergo a series of oscillating ​perspective changes, challenging familiar pictorial logic and convention. Additionally, I translate images of Yosemite and Silicon Valley into ​binary code text images, anaglyph 3d stereoscopic images and digital motif palimpsests. I create mylar laser-cut stencils of these digital ​translations in the William Walsh workshop at NCAD, which are used to airbrush/spray-paint palimpsests.

These layers are virtual and actual representations of the same scene. This process presents technical challenges and requires adherence to ​methodological rules and systems. Integrating traditional painting materials with digital manipulation and technological experimentation ​resonates with the duality of the Yosemite Valley - Silicon Valley contrast. My process reflects and responds to the coexistence of perceived ​deep-time and real-time, as well as the cultural and technological landscapes of the two valleys.

In addition to my visual practice, I've delved into sound as a medium to capture temporality through durational compositions crafted from field ​recordings taken in Yosemite and Silicon Valley. This contrast between my perceived ‘static’ paintings and the dynamic experience of my sound ​pieces mirrors the contrast of deep time and real-time. I chose painting as medium, as it appears as ‘static’ to our human perception of time, ​however it is in a constant state of flux, both on a molecular level and over the lifespan of the painting. The duality of visual and acoustic ​syncopative compositional palimpsests, echo Marshall McLuhan’s theories on time, cultural context and technological paradigms. A repetitive ​and iterative loop of creation and perception.

Artist Workshops Facilitation

Creative Research Methodology Workshops, Colaiste Íde ​College of Further Education, Dublin December 2015—​January 2017.

Two-part Creative research methodology workshops with ​FETAC Level 5/6 Portfolio Preparation in Art and Design ​students & Fashion Design students.

Responsibilities included:

• Strategically tailoring the workshops to fit with third ​level art and design entrance briefing criteria
• Presenting the workshop to students and lecturers in ​two parts
• Identifying visual and theoretical research methods
• Introducing themes central to visual arts practice
• Utilising various mediums for creating artworks, such ​as acrylic and watercolour paint, pencil, chalk and oil ​pastel, mixed media and fabric.
• Development of visual art and design notebooks
• Initiating student collaborations
• Establishing a research topic

C.V

Education

MFA - National College of Art and Design, ​Dublin. Specialising in Painting 2024-​2025.

MS.c - TUD, Creative Advertising 2017-​2019

BFA - National College of Art and Design, ​Dublin, Specialising in Painting 2013-​2016

Exhibitions

2023:

• CIACLA - Contemporary Irish Arts Centre, Los ​Angeles. The Irish Contemporaries {ii} - Building ​Bridges Art Exchange, Bergamot Station Art ​Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of ​America.
• MART Studios Members Exhibition - The MART ​Gallery, Rathmines, Dublin.
  

2022:

• CIACLA - Contemporary Irish Arts Centre, Los ​Angeles. The Irish Contemporaries {i} - Building
• Bridges Art Exchange, Bergamot Station Art ​Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of ​America.
  

2021:

• Site-Specific Installations, Millhouse, Co. Meath.

2016:

• Emerging Artists 2016, Courthouse Arts Centre, ​Tinahely, Co. Wicklow.
• Biannual Emerging Artists Exhibitions, St. Patricks ​Hospital, Co. Dublin.
• Degree Graduate Exhibition, NCAD, Co. Dublin.
• Transitions, NCAD, Co. Dublin.

2015:

• CENTRAL, MART Gallery, Rathmines, Co. Dublin.
• SAUNA, STEAMBOX Gallery, Co. Dublin.
• PAINT 2.0 NCAD, Co. Dublin.
• Tunnelling, Art and Science, O’ Reilly Hall, UCD, ​Co. Dublin.
• CONSCIENCE, Domestic space exhibition, ​Hanbury Mews, Co. Dublin

2014

• End of Year Show (NCAD), Co. Dublin.
  

2013

• Permanent display, Colaiste Ide College of ​Further Education, Co. Dublin.

2012

• Voluntary Arts Ireland, Put Your Best Pencil ​Forward, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, UCC, Co. Cork.