Helen O’Connell
Stone sculptor
Bray, Ireland
Recommended by Design & Crafts Council Ireland
Carving shadows under an Irish sky
- Helen creates sculptures from Irish limestone
- She spent time studying at the Nicoli studios in Carrara, Italy
- Her work is in many public and private collections in Ireland and abroad
After graduating from Trinity College Dublin in literature, Helen O'Connell turned to stone sculpture, a journey which led her from rural Ireland to Nicoli Studios in Cararra, and the marble quarries of Alentejo in Portugal. Today, Helen divides her time between her studio by the sea in Ireland, and Tre Luci Studio d’Arte in Italy. Her work is inspired by organic biomorphic forms found in nature, the enduring symbolism of the circle, Japanese design aesthetics and Ireland's ancient relationship with stone. "Through my sculptures, I am increasingly aiming to celebrate the epic scale of geological time contained in stones and fossils," she explains. Helen was awarded the Solomon Fine Art award as well as the Morgan O’Driscoll award for Best Sculpture in the 2024 Annual Exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy.
INTERVIEW
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!
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.
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!
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.
