Helen O’Connell

Stone sculptor

Carving shadows under an Irish sky

Helen creates sculptures from Irish limestone
She enjoys working collaboratively and learning from those around her
She spent time studying at the Nicoli studios in Carrara, Italy

As a child Helen O’Connell loved making things, but after studying English literature at university she thought she would go on to write, rather than work with her hands. However a trip to Russia sparked an interest in sculpture and she soon became determined to learn stone carving. After training in Ireland she went on to learn from marble masters in Italy and Portugal, before “coming full circle” and ending up back in her homeland carving local Irish limestone. She now works thematically, creating a body of work around a theme that inspires her, whether it be musical instruments, abstract forms or the rocky fissures on Irish mountains.

Interview

Why have you come back to working with Kilkenny limestone?: It seems to work with the light here in Ireland much better. Sculpture is working with light and shade and a lot of the time when you work with marble it shadows in a particular way when you are out in the Mediterranean light, and can be completely different when you bring it home!
What do you love most about being an artisan?: It’s lovely to be able to set your own goals, to live with that freedom and find out what you can and can’t do. I have to be able to see the thing that I am going to make in my head first, and it’s a great feeling of satisfaction when you manage to bring it to material fruition.
Do you still write and does that inform your carving?: I haven’t in quite a while and I want to get back into it. It would be nice to combine poetry and sculpture in some way. One of the things I like about sculpture is that you have a lot of time to think. It’s a good meditative time. So I have written lots of great things in my head!
What skills do you need to be a stone carver?: To be a bit mad and very stubborn! It serves that strange mixture of determination and finding solutions to the various obstacles that the medium throws up. It’s good when you can work in a collective way as well, because it can be quite an isolated thing.

Helen O’Connell is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2000