Art Forms: Visual Art and Music
Areas of Interest: As a musician I toured the world with Dead Can Dance in 1990...
I played with original bands Slump and Jacuzzi Jungle and still dabble with some home recording.. https://soundcloud.com/joeyburns3
I have also done a few music improvisation performances with a workbench which is constructed on the basis of a guitar. (1 bass guitar string resonating and the signal is processed through multiple guitar effect units. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EYx6aCqOI
I have been involved with many community based art projects over the past 20 years and enjoy sharing the skills of wood carving and helping people discover their art confidence, I have worked projects with PEACE 3 , Youthreach, Rapid project, Garda 365, Macra, etc. I also share my skills with the Art and Design and Furniture Design classes in Cavan Institute.
Bio:
I am best known as a wood sculptor. I discovered wood sculpture as a foundation year student at Sligo Institute in 1987.From my first attempt at carving I knew I was born to sculpt. I also completed year 1 diploma at Sligo Institute before transferring to the Crawford College of Art Cork for year 2. After year 2 I got asked to play on a world tour with 4AD band Dead Can Dance. On the tour I played trumpet, percussion and sang backing vocals. On returning from the tour I got a job as Art facilitator on
the Drumlin project with Cavan arts office (1991 1993.)
In 1994 I got my first job teaching woodcarving with The Matt Talbot Community Trust in Dublin working with young offenders and ex prisoners. I worked there for 2 years and gained invaluable experience in teaching and social awareness. In 1996 I returned to music playing bass with Kells band Slump and trumpet with Acid Jazz band Jacuzzi Jungle while discovering and researching prechristian Ireland which was the main influence on my early sculptures and still resonates in
my current work.
In 1998 I moved permanently to county Cavan where I set up as a full time sculptor / art facilitator. I also had my first solo exhibition Talking Sticks which was a retrospective of 40 previously sold sculptures together for the first time in an exhibition. In 2002 I had a solo exhibition of sculptures ( Ancient ) in The Irish Art Center New York.
In 2004 I represented Ireland at the first international sculpture symposium in Kawan,
Brittany France. In 2010 I was lead artist on the Mórtas an Cabhán sculpture symposium to create 11
public art sculptures / installations for Fleadh na hEireann 2010. In 2011 I was lead artist on a Peace 3 project ‘OUR PEACE‘ which involved 5 artists working with 5 cross border community groups, Through the project we engaged with the groups to discover what Peace in Ireland meant to them. We
created 5 public sculptures which were unveiled in the run up to Fleadh na hEireann
2011.
In 2012 I was commissioned by Cavan County Council to conceive / design and sculpt 15 large public sculptures for Dún A Rí forest park Kingscourt, county Cavan. I identified national school children as my demographic for the project and carved Irish animals found in the park. In 2015 I designed my website http://www.irishwoodsculpture.ie/
Over the years I have built up a loyal customer base working on commissions and sales of my personal work. I also run wood carving workshops at my studio.
Contact information and further details:
Website: http://www.irishwoodsculpture.ie/
Email: irishwoodsculpture@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joey.burns.37
Tel: +353868422538
https://www.youtube.com/user/joeyburns64/videos
