Little Miracles art exhibition

Little Miracles art exhibition is a collaboration between two Dublin Mental Health service providers – EVE Goirtin and H.O.P.S. Rehabcare. EVE Goirtin is a HSE Hub programme which aims to support individuals in the community, based in Grangegorman, Dublin 7. H.O.P.S (Harrison’s Opportunities & Placement Service) is a Rehabcare community day service based in Dublin 2. The exhibition will run in Cabra Library from 3 September to 18 September.

The collaboration between the Goirtin artists and the H.O.P.S. poets came about through the shared love of the creative arts and a desire from the participants of both centres to meet new people and share their creative work with a wider audience. Our artists have made artworks inspired by a poetry book called Prisms by a group from H.O.P.S. Rehabcare.

Anthony Behan was one of the project artists who chose the quote ‘There’s always something new to find’ from James Bach’s poem Providence and New Learning. Anthony painted a vibrant woodland landscape, on which the words of the poem were super-imposed. Anthony’s choice seems especially appropriate as the shaded and leafy deep woodland setting is ripe with possibilities, much like the poem itself.

The visible layers of meaning in these paintings echo the layers of meaning within the poems, and the manner in which the reader is vital in order to bring a poem to life. Elsewhere in the exhibition, the poems have inspired an eclectic mix of artworks. Goirtin artist Jurate Grisajeva has made intriguing mixed media works using tree slices, fabric, clay, rock salt, and other found objects to re-imagine the angels and sea maidens featured in poems.