Irish visual artist Rachel Doolin chats to Éadaoin Glynn about the challenge of taking the leap to become a professional artist, how materials inspire her, her slow research-based, collaborative approach and why she likes writing grant applications.

Rachel graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the Crawford College of Art & Design and has received many awards, grants and residencies. Rachel's multidisciplinary approach merges art, experimentation, and ecology.  She collaborates with artists, NGOs,  community and professional organisations to create meaningful artworks in response to social and environmental issues. 

In this episode Rachel talks about:

• Going to art college as a new mother
• Research in the artic
• Svalbard Seed Bank, the back-up for the world's seeds.  
• The sound of the glacier
• Seed research and working with Irish Seedsavers
• Inspiration for Heirloom
• Being overwhelmed with information
• The stories within seeds
• Seed Cloud recordings
• Seedarium, a wooden sculptural installation with a collection of donated seeds displayed encased in resin.
• How she preserved seeds in bioresin.
• Oscillithic, a collaboration with sound artist Anne Marie Deacy, based on research with Solstice Arts Centre and Dowth lands, Co. Meath.
• Dowth Hall megalithic passage tomb, said to be the most important megalithic find in Ireland in fifty years by archaeologist, Clíodhna Ní Lionáin
• Quartz was found in the tomb, which was not local to the area. Why was it there and what did it mean?
• Triboluminescence - quartz creates an orange glow when rubbed together.
• Sí in modern Irish language refers to both the megalithic mounds and the spirits believed to be connected to ancient burial sites. White quartz stones, known as 'Clocha Geala' or ‘Shining Stones’ have featured prominently at many of these ancient sites.  The theory is that quartz was used  in religious ceremonies and astronomical observations. 
• Quartz is an oscillator of sound and is used in our current material culture in our phones, solar panels, fibre optics.
• Creating a sound sculpture
• Studio practice - a slow considered process with the journey more important than the final product
• A disciplined approach to work
• Collaboration and research
• Time management, application writing and administration - " 70% of my time as an artist is spent on a computer because that's what I have to do."

• The benefits of grant application writing as a way of organising her thinking and planning around a project
• On rejection and asking for feedback
• Applying for multiple grants at the same time.
• The challenge of being a professional artist and how winning awards helped her confidence in taking this leap.
• Working in early years arts education
• The best advice she received

Read the full blog post.

Resources and links:

Archaeologist Clíodhna Ní Lionáin explains why Dowth is the most important megalithic find in Ireland in the past 50 years on YouTube.

Eco-Poxy resin

Woodskin

Irish Seed Savers 

Madeleine McKeever

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Will Bonsall 

SeedCLOUD 

Anne Marie Deacy 

James.L.Hayes 

Beili Liu 

Katie Paterson

Cal Flynn - Islands of Abandonment 

Solstice Arts Centre

Rachel Doolin on Instagram 

Rachel Doolin website

National Sculpture Factory

Éadaoin Glynn on Instagram