Hello, my name is Laura Wade, originally from Cork, I'm now residing in Mayo in the North West of Ireland. I had spent the last few years in West Cork, an area that profoundly shaped my creative path. However I was pleased to be drawn back north as I had studied in Galway/Mayo IT. At GMIT's Centre for Creative Arts & Media, I specialised in printmaking, a process that has always been the root of my artistic practice. In 2014, graduating with a first class honours, I received an academic achievement award and 12 month bursary with Cork Printmakers.
These days I primarily work in the medium of brush and ink on paper, but also veering off to explore other image making ways such as collage, photography and mixed media techniques. When creating a body of work, I prefer to work on multiple pieces simultaneously, often repeating compositions to seek out strands to inform the next.
The pinholes that appear are another form of mark making, adding intrigue and refer to something other. The tactile quality of these minute pinholes draw the viewer in with wonder while the geometric overlays and lines contrast with the soft fluidity of the ink marks giving a sense of something unfolding.
I find the simplicity and unforgiving nature of ink as a medium appealing, and that brush and ink on paper creates one of the most honest marks. Working with this medium allows me to focus on the clarity of shape and the curious quality of the silhouette. The lowering darkness and lengthening shadows at dusk amplifies that play between shadow and light, the magical way it blurs and blends attune the senses differently and feeds into my work.
Intrigued by sighing silhouettes and quiet places, through my visual language I explore our sense of place and how we connect to our surroundings. I view each piece as gentle line of poetry opening up a space to contemplate our connection to nature.
“There is a beautiful restraint in Laura Wade’s creative language. The diverse formal elements, including ink wash, silhouette, perforation, geometric overlay and collage are combined in ever-inventive and stimulating ways. Whilst shadows may be the drawings of the sun, geometry is the star of the human mind; in the shadow plays and overlays of Wade’s ink paintings the two converge.”
James Waller, artist & poet
