Ciara O’Connor: Threads of artist's life run through Crawford exhibition

 Ciara O’Connor's textile art at the Cork gallery has some deeply personal themes and references 

Ciara O'Connor's work is currently on display at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. Picture: Lynda Kenny

Ciara O’Connor’s textile art is so assured one could be forgiven for thinking it has been her life’s work. However, it is only in the past few years that she has taken seriously to sewing and embroidery, and she seems surprised that her work is now being shown - alongside that by Dorothy Cross, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain and several others - in the group exhibition Following Threads at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork.

A native of Dublin city, O’Connor originally studied painting and printmaking at college in Galway over twenty years ago. The experience was not a particularly happy one. “I ended up leaving after a few years,” she says. “I felt like, if I was to be a good artist, I needed to be a good painter, and I’m not. I didn’t realise it at the time, but in hindsight, I know I was suffering from depression.”