Welcome to this BLOG site which serves more as a Web site than a Blog. I hope that you find the information you need here and if not please contact me.
I am currently working on drawings in the studio which are continuations of both rural based work  and swimmers. I was awarded a Kilkenny County Council Arts Bursary to continue working with the St. Catherine’s Community at the Wetlands Halting site in Kilkenny City, and begin new work with the other Traveller Communities in the County.  This was done with the help of the Kilkenny County Council Community workers and the Kilkenny Traveller Community Movement, resulting in an exhibition for Traveller Pride Week at Kilkenny County Council’s Link Corridor exhibition space in 2011.

Work from current projects

are also viewed on FLIKR

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Previous Post

During National Heritage Week, 2010, “Townlands” was once again presented. Not only did it contain new work by both artists but it also involved the local National School and the community. On the 28th of August there was a forum with Carmel Cummins, Kerry Hardie, Paddy Kelly, moderated by Helen Carroll.
Following is a description of 2009′s exhibition and the purpose of the project.
Alan Counihan and Gypsy Ray presented an exhibition, “Townland” for inclusion in the Visual Art Programme of Kilkenny Arts Festival 2009. The exhibition is part of a new collaborative strand of work ,“Townlands”, which sets out to explore a very specific place, the townlands in the parish of Rathcoole, Co Kilkenny in all their resonant complexities.
The focus is primarily on the “vernacular” history of the townland fields, the names and stories by which they are still specifically remembered. However ’Townlands” is not an exercise in, nor celebration of, cultural nostalgia. Its explorations of vernacular traditions and customs are accompanied by an examination of, reflection on and juxtaposition with, the contemporary practices by which they have been supplanted.

The overall goal of “Townlands” is to re-present local place to local people, among others, by means of a creative distillation, re-envisioning and expression of its folklore. history and contemporary landscape. This re-presentation, through exhibition- and possible publication,- will be in a vibrant and contemporary language, the past of a place viewed through the eye of its presence.

Series of Swimming Drawings and Photographs
I have been a swimmer since childhood and through my early 20’s in rivers, lakes and the waterways made from strip mines in Illinois. Now I swim in indoor pools and the occassional natural body of water. Moving through water was then, as it is now, a cathartic experience and one which brought me a freedom of movement and of spirit.

Swimming seems a metaphor for moving through the stages of my life, encompassing the passage of time, the various events that shape days and situations. Gliding through water without the need to move faster than my body of the day allows, gives me time to reflect. I have grieved in water, felt elated, planned days and work during the rhythmic swimming of laps. To swim seems essential to creative expression.

This series of work comprises of drawings and photographs which I started making a few years ago and continue to this day.

     

PRESS RELEASE INFO

During 2009 Gypsy Ray completed residencies for both County Carlow Arts Office and County Kilkenny Arts Office where during both she engaged the communities while focusing on her own artist practice. Ray’s work is primarily informed by and focused on photography and drawing and she has exhibited extensively in both group and solo shows in the United States and Europe over the last thirty years. Her photographic work is included in the United States Library of Congress Collections and the Wellcome Trust Collection at the British Museum in London. Her drawings are in private collections such as: Rudolf and Eva Hetzel, Andrew and Tina Kavanagh.
She taught photography in art departments at third level for 24 years at various institutions including: University of California Berkeley San Francisco Center, University of California at Santa Cruz Extension Programs, City College of San Francisco and Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz County, USA. She currently is the Arts Facilitator for the Butler Gallery’s 5-6 Women’s Art Programme in Kilkenny, Ireland where she now lives.More of her photographic work and drawings can be viewed on her Flikr site.

This series of drawings, “Concealment”, is deeply rooted in the first hand experience of serious illness, breast cancer, it’s treatment and all else that comes with it. This work began as a private investigation but it has evolved beyond the strictly personal and specific disease.

Each image portrays a human body, although this is not always immediately visible and must be searched out by the viewer. Across the backgrounds I use graphite, lead and coloured pencil to obscure the figure and to create shapes representative of “crossing out” and geometric forms suggestive of medical dressings. It is this tension between revelation and concealment, the gray territory of doubt, which the work sets out to explore.
I need to thank the Kilkenny County Arts Office and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre for their support for this specific series

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Gypsy Ray, Rhue Lane, Tullabrin, Johnswell, County Kilkenny, Ireland

gypsyray@eircom.net

 

*FLICKR
More images can be viewed on Flickr.  29th August: Flickr account is under changes.

Selected Resume

CURRENT AND UPCOMING

2013 Solo exhibition of drawings for Kilkenny Arts Festival, Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland

2012 Invited, Drawing exhibited in RHA annual exhibition, Dublin, Ireland

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010 Townlands Exhibition, drawings and photographs during National Heritage Week, Johnswell, County Kilkenny, Ireland
2009 EIgse Arts Festival, 30 years of photographic portraiture, Carlow, Ireland
2007 Airfield House, Dublin, Ireland
2004 Clotworthy Arts Centre, Antrim, No. Ireland
2001 Middle Tennessee University’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery, USA
featured artist and speaker for USA National Women’s History Month, March 2001
2000 Clotworthy Arts Centre, Antrim, Northern Ireland
1995 The County Hall Exhibition Space, Kilkenny City, Ireland
1994 Boyle Arts Festival, County Roscommon, Ireland
1994 Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
1994 University of California at Berkeley Extension Center Gallery, Ca., USA
1991 City Hall, San Francisco, Ca., USA
1986 University of California at Berkeley Extension Center Gallery, Ca., USA
1982 The Bell Table Arts Centre, Limerick City, Ireland
1982 Triskel Arts Centre, Cork City, Ireland

SELECTED GROUP AND INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

2011 Townlands Exhibition, drawings and photographs, Ennistymon Courthouse Gallery, County Clare, Ireland

2010 Invitational. Drawings. Lavit Gallery, Cork City, Ireland. September, 2010

2010 Drawing, Royal Hibernian Academy juried exhibition, Dublin, Ireland

2010 Concealment Drawings, St. Luke’s Hospital Arts Trust, Kilkenny, Ireland
2009 Townlands, Site Specific installation with Alan Counihan during Kilkenny Arts Festival, Kilkenny, Ireland
2009 Exhibition of drawings for Waterford Healing Arts Trust, Waterford Regional Hospital, Ireland
2008 Kilkenny Arts Office Watergate Space, Kilkenny, Ireland
2007 Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland
2006 Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland
2004 Dungarvan Arts Centre, Co Waterford
2001-02 Wexford Book Arts International Exhibit, Travelling Exhibit, Ireland
2001 Pajaro Arts Centre,Santa Cruz County, USA
2000 Cabrillo College Art Gallery, Aptos, Ca., USA
1990 EYE Gallery, San Francisco, Ca., USA
1988 The Ohio State University Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Columbus, Ohio, USA
1988 Hera Gallery, Wakefield, Rhode Island, USA
1988 Mobius Gallery, Boston, USA
1987 Works Gallery, San Jose, Ca., USA
1987-91 Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
1978 Marcuse Pfeiffer Gallery, New York, N.Y.., USA
1978 Camerawork Gallery, San Francisco, Ca., USA
1978 Camerawork Gallery, San Francisco, Ca.,USA

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2007 “Poetry of Place” monograph of Holga Photographs, Two Streams Press, Ireland
2000 “Watsonville Wetlands”, Santa Cruz County, California, USA
1999 Portfolio, Communities Magazine, USA
1997 Portfolio, SOURCE: Photographic Review, winter issue,Belfast,No. Ireland
1977 Portfolio, CARA, Aer Lingus, Nov./Dec. issue, Ireland
1993 Portfolio, VIEW CAMERA magazine, USA
1990 Congressional Quarterly, Inc., Washington, DC, USA
1990 Monograph, Gallerie Publications, Vancouver, Canada
1989 “Erotic by Nature”, book edited by David Steinberg, USA
1987 Portfolio, MS magazine, USA
1980 “The History of the Male Nude in Photography”, Vermont Crossroads Press, USA
1979 Portfolio, CREATIVE CAMERA, London, England

SELECTED COLLECTIONS
British Museum Wellcome Trust Collection, London, England
Library of Congress, Permanent Collections, Washington, DC, USA
Special Collections, University of California at Santa Cruz, USA
Special Collections, Goddard College, Vermont, USA
Archive of Women Photographers, Arcata, Ca.,USA
Tyrone Guthrie Centre collections, Annaghmakerrig, Co. Monaghan, Ireland

SELECTED ARTICLES AND REVIEWS
2006 Invidivual Profile, Article by Katherine Blake, Kilkenny People newpaper, Ireland
2000 Individual Profile, Article, by Nancy Redwine, SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL newspaper, July, USA
1999 Individual Profile, Article by Mary Spenoza, SANTA CRUZ METRO newspaper, November, USA
1988 “Photographing AIDS, Difficult Subject”, review of group exhibition by Independent Curators, New York City by Robert Atkins, VILLAGE VOICE magazine, June edition, New York, USA
1986 Review of “An Exhibit Concerning AIDS”, AFTERIMAGE magazine, September, USA
1986 “An Exhibit Concerning AIDS” review by Jan Grover, ARTWEEK magazine, August, USA

SELECTED FUNDING, RESIDENCIES AND GRANTS
2009 Artist in Residence for Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, Ireland
2008 Artist in Residence for Carlow County Arts Office, Carlow, Ireland
2007 Residency, Tyrone Guthrie Bursary award, Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, Ireland
2007 Arts Act Grant, Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, Kilkenny Ireland
2004 Arts Act Grant, Kilkenny County Arts Office, Ireland
1989 Santa Cruz County Arts Grant, Santa Cruz, California, USA
1997 Residency, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, Co. Monaghan, Ireland