Helen O’Connell

Helen O’Connell is inspired by Japanese art and design, in particular that of Isamu Noguchi. In her current body of work, she attempts to bring a meditative quality to the material of stone and give the seemingly simple form of the vessel a ceremonial connotation. By striving to depict a lightness in the weighty, unyielding material of stone, she draws out the magnificence of the Kilkenny limestone.

O’Connell graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature & Art History. She subsequently moved to Co. Leitrim where she trained under Séamus Dunbar, Jackie McKenna and Martha Quinn at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre in Manorhamilton. She spent several years working from her cottage studio and teaching at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre. Studies in the art of marble carving were undertaken in the Nicoli studios in Cararra, Italy.

In addition to her own current professional practice, she teaches stone sculpture at the Trinity College Arts Workshop. She currently works from studios in Dublin and her home in Co. Wicklow.