Kathleen Moroney

Spirit of Place presents the work of Alex Buchanan, Sunny Chapman, R. A. Friedman, Kathleen Moroney, Chris Page, and Mindy Veissid, artists who gently evoke a personal sense of the emotional history contained within a landscape or natural phenomenon. Their respective art works tell us more about the psychic energy and mood of a place than provide a description of an iconic or recognizable locale. The selected artworks provide the viewer insights into how the depicted place or view of nature makes the artist feel just as much as it tells us what it looks like to them. These artistic artifacts reveal facets of the artist's interior life and also carry something of the collective unconscious.

Kathleen Moroney

Artist Bio
Kathleen Moroney PhD

Kathleen Moroney was born in New York in 1967 of Irish parents and was raised in Astoria, NY and County Clare Ireland. She has a BA Honours Degree in Ceramic Design and a Masters by Research in Ceramics from The Technical University of The Shannon, Limerick, Ireland, 1998. Kathleen earned her PhD in 2017 from The University of Sunderland, UK (Dept. of Ceramics and Glass). Her research explores a multi-faceted approach to practice that interrelates cognitive, visual and corporeal knowledge with a focus on ceramic installation and movement based practice. Her current work explores the traces of motion inherent in stillness.

Kathleen has been awarded numerous art residencies including; Hunter College, NY; The Northern Clay Centre, MN; Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center, Denmark; Shigaraki Institute of Ceramic Studies, Japan. The narrative undercurrent of her work has found form in site-specific and collaborative projects, public art commissions and gallery installations. She has designed work specifically for venues such as The Music Hall at Augsburg College, MN.; PS 6, Staten Island, New York; The Fule International Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Fuping, China and Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry. Her work has been exhibited extensively and is part of the permanent collection at The National Museum of Ireland.

Kathleen lives in Ireland and is a Lecturer in Visual Art Sculpture and Academic Studies at The Institute of Art Design and Technology, Dublin.
Artist Statement
Artist Statement

This installation (the fourth in a series) is inspired by the flying pattern of a hummingbird, which has the unique ability to stop abruptly and hover in space; its tiny frame symbolizing the fleeting moment and the impossible task of stopping time. The narrative of the work reflects on the ceaseless shifting movement of time and the traces of motion inherent in stillness.

In a minimally constructed composition, fifty six terracotta birds are suspended in space by a plumbline and weight; a magnetic pull to earth, to land, to home. Constructed in terracotta clay; the red iron hue is of the earth and of the body; reflecting a sense of place internally and externally.
'When shadows exhale' (photo by artist)

Kathleen Moroney
Land, 2024
Ceramic and waxed cotton cord
92 x 82 cm x 304 cm ht.