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Jane K O’Connor

In my practice I explore the boundaries between contemporary and traditional folk-art practice, using the rich aesthetics of traditional Romany art and sign painting I employ familiar designs and motifs from folk art as a vehicle to create brightly coloured paintings and signs. Drawing from personal experience as a horse drawn traveller, I examine identity, liminal space, mobility and belonging in contemporary rural Britain. Inspired by folklore, music, literature and poetry I weave roadside stories that examine issues of prejudice and discrimination experienced by marginalised peoples.
Key materials used are porcelain animals collected from second hand shops, they are transformed by pouring paint covering the object in luscious drips that merge and coalesce into colourful pools of paint which contradict the precise painting on the signs.