Catherine Gregg Jones

Studied Liverpool university BDes 1990 -93

MA painting Coventry university 2017-2019

I spent my early career as a maker working in mixed media and textiles. I combined this with

teaching and working with young offenders. I am now a teacher and art therapist for the hospital

education service.

I decided to focus on paint and completed the MA at Coventry in 2019. My practice explores the

theme of memory and absence. I focus on faded imagery and forgotten places. Decadent decay and

ruin are revisited along with pathways and places I went as a child. More recently I began to explore

myth and legend. I am drawn to folk tales and story telling and the idea of memories being passed

through stories. I tend to work in a variety of media and surface but have settled currently to

working on board. This allows for a rubbing a way and replacing of surface and image. I am always

concerned with colour and light and the need to destroy and remake the work until I feel it is

resolved.

 

Threaded: Spirit Paths {The Goddess Collection.}

This series of images developed from myths and legends based around Celtic goddesses. Threads

from the past through to my existence. Captivated with connections to my Irish/Welsh and originally

Cornish heritage, which create my identity and form the roots of my family. Memory has always

been my main concern and I am fascinated by the idea that memory could be woven into our DNA

and subsequently form in our own dreams and experiences. Those moments of recognizing a place

or a face. That instinctive knowledge that we have been here before. These threads and twists of our

history all connecting to make us.

The goddess collection emerged rather than being planned, each one taking on her own distinctive

traits and identity as she began to make shape. The colour pallet is muted, and edges faded to allow

the viewer to add their own story to the piece. Each has her own characteristics and identity. Mostly

the eyes are closed as if asleep. This seemed important as if they are sleeping parts of the soul that

could open their eyes and bring you clarity if they chose to. My Irish grandmother was full of

superstition and lived by the moon calendar. These superstitions are inherited threads that occur

every day, meandering through language and feelings connecting me to those that walked my path

before me.

 

Each piece is named after a Celtic goddess, each has own story and traits.

Morrigan

Rhiannon

Danu

Danu

Aine

Caer Ibormeith

Brigantia

Macha