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Plant More Trees! #2I made this artwork in Virtual Reality - in my headset, and I realise that anyone watching me would think this looks quite strange! I’ve used a ‘paper tool’ from the Tiltbrush menu so that the landscape looks like paper. I often work with paper when I paint or make sculptures too, I like the way that papers can be very different, smooth or rough, shiny or absorbent, this changes how the painting or drawing or writing looks. From trees, we make paper and from paper we make books and art and when we create art or literature, we are making endless new worlds for all those who can read, write and look at them. I wanted to call the work ‘Plant More Trees!’ # 2 (I have another artwork with the same title) because I remember seeing a big sign on a deserted hillside in China. I was travelling in a boat up the Yanqtze river during my first visit to China in 2003 at the time and I liked the simplicity of the idea. We should plant more trees, not just for our environment but so we can make more books. In these books we can learn about the world we live in as well as the inner worlds within ourselves. In the film I have quoted the poetry of Li Ye, a Tang Dynasty poet who wrote of separation and loss. So the poetry is 8th century Chinese, the music was written in 16th century Spain and played by Edmund Pickering, my husband. The technology I have used is 21st century however, it also includes a 3D scan of a ceramic 18th century Qing figure of a scribe, this is a truly cross-history artwork. Because of Corona Virus restrictions I have not travelled to China to exhibit and to collaborate with Chinese and other artist friends - I feel this separation deeply. This work is a message to my friends in China to tell them that I miss them very much. NB Lots of people have difficulties learning to read and there are lots of techniques to help them to learn. So it’s really important to ask for help with this and for teachers and parents to spot if there’s a problem and start using those techniques as soon as possible. My father was a dyslexic child growing up in 1930s/40s Ireland. He was beaten every day at school and left education at the age of 13 unable to read or write. He was lucky because when he went to work as a messenger boy for Hipp's (gents clothing) a shop in Cork city, his boss was kind and helpful to him. That boss, advised my father to sign up for evening lessons at the School of Commerce (School of Com) and feeling very nervous he started his classes there. He was again very lucky to have a teacher who could understand his problem with reading and writing and this man changed my father's life by teaching him to read and write when he was 16. I was fortunate not to have my father's difficulties with literacy but two of my children are also dyslexic and I was really glad to have been prepared to help them because I knew my father's story. If a child is having a hard time in their life, as many do, reading books, seeing art, making music are ways to escape the hardship, the grief and to think about other possibilities in the future. In short, these are ways for children to find themselves and to be their own people.As an artist and former child, reading, not just for pleasure but for research and my own ongoing education is hugely important and so I feel very passionately about books and of course, trees!Please copy, like and share! Check it out on our website museumofchildhood.ie/artist-in-residence-fion-gunn/ and on YouTube youtu.be/Zf1OoTkoaMsFion Gunn #artwork #childhood #trees #education #environment #museumofchildhoodireland #plantmoretrees ...

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The Museum of Childhood Ireland Project

1 day ago

This is beautiful from Martina Connolly Metscher. ❤️“My mum was born in 1929 and would be around 5 or 6 years old in the photo. She grew up around Infirmary road (Dublin), her father a captain in the Irish army, her Mother a widow with 3 children. Remarried she then had 3 more, 2 brothers and mum. She was the eldest. Her name Margaret (peggy )Cummins. Ellen was her mum and her dad was Joseph. Her grandfather was in the English army stationed in India with his family.” ...

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The Museum of Childhood Ireland Project

2 days ago

Mountjoy Square, 1969 ...

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The Museum of Childhood Ireland Project

3 days ago

Swinging from the lampost, a popular game at one time. This photo is from Gardiner Street in Dublin in 1955. ...

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The Museum of Childhood Ireland Project

3 days ago

Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley’s, (History Lead at the Museum of Childhood Ireland), contribution on Morning Ireland yesterday. Please have a listen, if you missed it live. Sarah-Anne Buckley Morning Ireland RTÉ ...

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“.@SarahAnneBuckle t.co/35U70L76mJ”

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