Art of the singer
Lifestyle - Ceara Conway from An Ceathrú Rua always knew she had a talent for art and trained in that field, but it was only as an adult that she realised she also possessed a glorious singing voice. After more than a decade of incorporating song into her artworks, she has just recorded an album that draws from the sean-nós tradition of love and loss. She tells JUDY MURPHY how it evolved.
“I always use projects as an opportunity to work with my heroes,” says artist and singer Ceara Conway, whose album Caoin will be available from Thursday, March 31.
Ceara has no problems getting her heroes to collaborate with her because the talented Conamara-born artist and singer has the happy knack of mixing creativity and social awareness in her diverse projects.
“I always want to see how things can be moved forward, but not just for the sake of it,” says Ceara, who now lives near Clarinbridge.
That’s how she approaches her life too. Ceara started out as a visual artist before discovering her talent for singing, especially the sean-nós of her native place. For almost a decade, she has mixed art and music in her work and has a special grá for songs that capture feelings of loss and longing.
This evolution has led to a new departure for Ceara as she prepares to launch Caoin, an album that was funded by Galway County Council and Creative Ireland.
By her standards, this beautifully interpreted collection of traditional Irish songs of tenderness and loss, is a “straight-up” album, albeit one that has input from some of the country’s most exciting and innovative musicians “who are pushing the boundaries in Irish and traditional music”.
From An Ceathrú Rua, Ceara studied art at Galway RTC, now GMIT, after leaving school. She’d always shone at art in school, but college daunted her.
“I wasn’t confident,” she says now.
She dropped out and got a job working in Aria Stained Glass in the city, learning that craft.
“But the artist in me kept coming through and my co-workers encouraged me to go study art.”
Ceara followed her instinct, something she still does to this day.
Having developed a passion for glass, Ceara moved to Edinburgh in 2001, to study hot glass, which includes glass-blowing and sculpting.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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