Artist's Statement

"Growing up, being colourblind wasn’t something I gave much thought to—it was simply how I experienced the world. But once I began studying art at Limerick School of Art and Design, I quickly realised that my way of seeing colour was different from most of my peers. I’d pair colours that made perfect sense to me, but others found jarring or mismatched. At first, this difference was frustrating, and I questioned whether I could truly belong in the visual arts. But over time, I began to see my colour blindness not as a barrier, but as the starting point of something uniquely mine.
People often assume colour blindness means seeing the world in black and white, but that’s not the case. I do see colour—but certain tones, especially reds and greens, can be hard to distinguish. Some colours blur together, others appear more muted than they are for most people. Because of this, I’ve developed a deep reliance on contrast, texture, form, and composition. My approach to colour is instinctive, emotional, and layered in uncertainty. I don’t always know what colour I’ve chosen, which adds a sense of openness and spontaneity to my process.
Over the years, this has become central to my practice. I embrace my own visual language and find freedom in not being bound by conventional colour theory. There’s something powerful about working outside those rules, about trusting my own interpretation of colour and meaning.
My recent exhibition, New Perspectives, explored this theme directly. The work focused on colour blindness and how it shapes both the way I create and the way others respond to my art. One of the most personal moments was a performance piece where I wore EnChroma glasses. For the first time, I saw my own paintings in what others would call “true” colour. It was both beautiful and unsettling. Some colours I had thought of as soft were suddenly vivid and loud. Some contrasts disappeared entirely. It made me realise just how much I had been painting in trust, relying on feeling over fact.
That experience has stayed with me. It wasn’t just about seeing colour—it was about being seen. About recognising that different ways of seeing are not wrong, just different. My work continues to explore those ideas: perception, identity, and the quiet power of difference.
Colour blindness doesn’t define or limit me. It informs how I work, and it offers a perspective that is uniquely my own. Through my art, I want to invite people to reconsider what it means to see—to understand that our ways of perceiving the world are deeply personal, and that there’s value in every variation."