Kerry artist David Morrison's personal reason why he got involved in the Incognito art sale
David Morrison from Ballybunion is one of the artists who've donated pieces to the Incognito sale.
Celebrity architect Hugh Wallace, fashion designers Heidi Higgins and Helen Steele, and former broadcaster Thelma Mansfield are among the hundreds of artists contributing work to this year’s edition of Incognito, the online art auction in aid of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.
Those who have donated work in the past include Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Ronnie Woods of the Rolling Stones, and more celebrity names will be announced when the auction is formally launched this Thursday (April 4). Each of the postcard-sized artworks is priced at just €65, but the artist’s name is not revealed until the auction is over.
Incognito was launched as an annual event in 2017, and David Morrison from Ballybunion, Co Kerry is among the artists who have contributed work every year since. “The whole reason I got involved was because we had friends whose daughter had cerebral palsy,” he says, “so there was a personal connection. Sadly, she’s died since, but they were full-on caring for her all their lives, and I know how the Jack and Jill Foundation gave them respite. I love how Incognito supports the foundation, and as an artist, I’m glad of the opportunity to be involved.”
Each work Morrison contributes to Incognito begins as a photograph, which he then manipulates, either digitally or by adding other elements. “I’ll start off by gluing a photographic image to a piece of card. But every piece I do, I try and make unique in one way or another, so I might add paint to it, or something like sand or twigs. It’ll always be a one-off.”
Morrison has been taking photographs since his school days in Co Waterford. “My background is kind of Anglo-Irish,” he says. “I was born in London and brought up in Luton early on. But then I came to Ireland with my mom and dad, and went to school in Cappoquin. I got my first camera from a family friend who came over to visit. I just fell in love with the whole idea of capturing an instant on film.”
On completing his Leaving Cert, Morrison failed to find work in Co Waterford, so he returned to London. “I was going to join the Air Force originally,” he says, “but that didn't come off, so I started working in warehouses and pubs. Then I met someone who worked in the Royal Shakespeare Company. She got me interested in the theatre, and I went in and photographed the actors rehearsing on stage. When they saw the photographs, they asked to buy them, and that’s what got my career started.”
Morrison returned to Ireland in 1997, taking a year out to cycle around the country taking photographs. Eventually he settled in Ballybunion, working for a company called Stockbyte in Tralee while he and his wife Cathy raised their family of three. “I’m mostly self-trained as a photographer, but I picked up a lot of my knowledge of Photoshop at Stockbyte, and that opened my eyes to how much you can do to manipulate your images.”
A redundancy package helped him to set up in business on his own. “When I started off, I was producing my own stock images, basic photos of Ballybunion and scenes along the coast. I'm in my 60s now, and it’s only in the last ten years or so that I’ve gone more into the art side of things. I still use the computer a lot, with a big tablet and two big monitors in front of me. I might print an image on canvas, and then I’ll add paint or other materials. It’s a fusion of old and new techniques.”
Morrison has exhibited regularly, and is particularly proud of a project he worked on with Ballybunion Active Retirement Group, which culminated in an exhibition at St John’s Theatre, Listowel in 2020. “I asked the people involved to describe what they’d loved doing as children, or what it was they’d hoped to be when they grew up. One wanted to be a tightrope walker, so I did an image of her tight roping across the beach in Ballybunion. Another had been a hula hooper, so I made an image of her hula hooping in space.
"Another woman, named Delia, wanted to be in the garden with her flowers, so I produced an image of her relaxing with a cigarette and a glass of wine, with all these butterflies around her. We produced a calendar of images from the exhibition, and sold two print runs in aid of the Retirement Group.”
Morrison has had great feedback from those who have bought his work through the Incognito initiative. “There was one occasion when I got a lovely email from a woman who’d bought a work of mine featuring an image of a girl with feathers and a lantern up in the clouds. This woman was fighting cancer at the time, and she bought the piece because she saw something of herself in it. She wrote to thank me for brightening her day. And I thought, wow, that's what it's all about, you know.”
Incognito is an annual online art auction, curated by Lucinda Hall, that raises funds for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.
Jack and Jill was established by Mary Ann O’Brien and Jonathan Irwin, whose son Jack passed away at home in Kildare aged 22 months in December 1997.
The foundation provides a practical home nursing care model, offering respite to parents and carers supporting children with complex medical needs, and end-of-life care for children up to the age of six. Today, 401 children and their families are supported by the Jack and Jill Team.
The Incognito 2024 Collection goes live on April 4, and the online sale takes place on April 24. It features thousands of postcard-sized artworks by hundreds of artists, each costing just €65.
- To register as a buyer, please visit incognito.ie
