Projection painting at the Solar space Cafe

My aim for the cafe was to direct a communal painting, to involve both volunteers & members of the public. I also wanted to see how successfully a computer drawing could be transcribed in the real world in this manner. I was allocated the back wall space in the gallery to do a mural.  During prep work I drilled & screwed in various large pieces of cardboard to the wall and coated it all in white primer.

When putting "solar space" into a search engine I found several depictions of a proposed satellite array of solar panels capable of harvesting the sun's energy 24/7. What caught my eye was that the frame of the array was hexagonal; a shape which I felt tied in with our honey-cone logo motif.



I made a simplified abstracted version of the solar panel array in a vector drawing format and had it printed onto acetate. This was laid on the projector. Once the projected image's size and placing on the wall were determined satisfactorily the acetate was sellotaped down and the projector's degree of magnification, its position and angle were marked off with masking tape in order to ensure the projection wasn't moved. Not only that the table's position and angle the projector rested on were marked off with masking tape as well. 



I outlined the drawing in charcoal. A table was set up with brushes and paints next to the wall. Some of the volunteers helped paint in the outlines prior to and during the first day of the festival.

Honeybee Presentation

Honeycomb display

Dennis Ryan Senior gave a talk on beekeeping. A former president of the Federation of Irish Beekeepers’ Associations, he also produces locally Pure Tipperary Honey. More info on his passion can be found here.






Given the name of our group, inspired by our general location 

- Cluain Meala, aka "honey meadow" its quite an appropriate subject.

Dry felting workshop

Violeta Pserackaite creates bespoke felt and silk clothing for her own fashion line, wildwomenart. In this workshop she demonstrates the creative possibilities of nuno felting. She started her demonstration with one large piece on a table where folk could actively participate in adding to/amending the various fabrics.



Solar Space cafe - Clonmel Junction Festival 2011


The Solar Space CafĂ© (curated by Art Hive) at Clonmel Junction Festival 2011. Solar Space offered a range of drop-in and structured creative workshops for the public, using a wide range of creative processes such as clay sculptures and theatrical installations, suspended multiple artworks, wall-based painting and print techniques, textiles and experiential art. 


All through the week we had casual 'drop-in' sessions where anyone could come in off the street and take part in creative activities.




Solar space Cafe opening day

Solar space Cafe on the Clonmel Junction Festival opening day.