Greg is a mixed media artist from Kildare who predominately works with cardboard. Greg's most recent project deals with drawing onto double corrugate cardboard with pen, pencil and markers as he focuses on the magical and mystical prehistoric monuments that attract, confuse and demand respect.

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I create artwork from recycled double corrugated cardboard. The cardboard I use mostly comes from shops and stores but also from friends and family. Using such a ubiquitous material I am conscious of reusing and reintegrating this material into the literal idea of transport (cardboard boxes transporting products) but also psychologically through our ancestors structures.

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Once I photograph these structures (after I make a journey of visiting these amazing sites around Ireland) I then choose cardboard that best suits the chosen image and begin drawing and mapping out the subject. Then I begin to cut and slice the material with scalpels as I wrestle with the materials rigidity as I try to reveal it's inner space. Once I am happy with the subject matter I then frame the cardboard artworks myself with 2.1cm x 2.1cm pine molds. This helps to support and protect the material and give the weakened sides of the material strength (by revealing the materials inner space I weaken its rigidity). I then reinforce the frame by screwing in angle brackets to each corner. Initially the angle brackets were added for aesthetics to highlight the idea of these pieces being in transit literally and figuratively but as time went on I realised that this addition became a crucial part of its actual durability and protection. 

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"The Druids associated the evergreen pine with the coming of the sun after the dark winter. Together with the yew tree, it was one of the twins of the Winter Solstice. The yew represented the death of the old while the pine embodied the birth of the new."

 

The artwork has a sculptural presence in the space it occupies as it plays with the inner and outer surfaces pulling the viewer in and pushing them away. For me the structures and the material have an inherent connection with one another because the material and the structures are both hidden in plain view and are also taken for granted while both contain an inner power and beauty.

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Looking at our ancestors' prehistoric structures that dot our green isle, such as ringforts, dolmens, and stone circles, for me gives hope, strength and power. These structures act as a portal to our ancestors through these "technologies" but also act as a gateway to our relatives that had to leave Ireland for one reason or another throughout the centuries. 

 

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