Zane Sutra (51), Bunclody
‘In Riga where I grew up, I studied piano and violin as a child and attended a special arts school from the age of 12. My great uncle Julius Fedders was a famous artist.
My childminder was my great-aunt who worked in an Opera House. She would take me with her and I got to see many of the operas and ballets. It was brilliant. It was great for my imagination.
I studied art for three years of a five-year degree course at third level and then I had my five children. I came to Ireland in 1999, to Wexford where I have been for 16 years now.
I was a graphic designer in Latvia, designing magazines and newspapers on computer. When I came to Ireland, I did mural painting and sign-writing. I did a mural for the Alba restaurant in Enniscorthy.
I had friends who had graduated from the Wexford School of Art and Design. They had told me the staff and lecturers were so understanding and supportive. That is true. Nobody would be let down. There are many mature students here.
I am graduating with my degree after three years because they took me on in second year but I would have loved another year. I would really love to fail and stay for another year. It’s an amazing experience.
They are pushing you and dragging you to learn about art theories but that is so good because they are changing your mind and changing your perception of what art is.
For the graduate show, I was researching 1916 and came across provocative postcard photos of women from around the same time in France and they were the inspiration for my figurative paintings. The paintings are about the horror or blessing of mortality. I put a really high price on them because I don’t want to sell them.
When I am painting, I am not really there. I am somewhere else. There is no you. I think it is the same for musicians who get lost in the music. For me, painting is access to another world, a spiritual world. You are forgetting yourself completely.
It is difficult to make a living from art, to live your life freestyle with no strings or commitments. Some people like to do something that is paid, art is not paid unless you do something commercial.
I am interested in theatre and stage work. I would like to work in an Opera House.That would be a dream for me.’