In this article, Jennie has a few words with her younger self…<\/p>\n
JM 2026: I am looking at you sitting by a window in your studio that looks down onto the Liffey. It is 2006. You are embroidering pillowcases for a stroke unit of the Galway University Hospital.<\/a> You look quite serene sitting there like some Victorian lady in a drawing room, but I know you are thoroughly miserable. I know that this is not a happy time. I know that you cry with frustration on your cycle home from the studio. There is never enough space for bikes on the climb up Harold’s Cross Bridge and you have to shlep yours up onto the footpath. You fight with cars. Your rage is wholly unrelated to traffic of course. You just hate your work. You will allow this situation to go on for a while. You are a grafter. For you the only way out is through. You let the frustration build up in layers that compact in your gut and eventually it ferments and starts to bubble and froth with enough energy to propel you out of that studio like a cork. This will take 6 years.<\/p>\n JM 2006: I am not thoroughly miserable all the time. I don\u2019t feel comfortable in the art world. It makes me cringe. But just now sitting here embroidering I am quite alright. My hands are busy translating little pieces of stories onto hospital regulation bed linen. I have been spending Wednesdays in this stoke unit knitting and quietly taking things in. Because I am not healthcare staff or a family member people seem to be really open with me. They sort of tell me secrets. One man involved me in some illicit gambling, got me to ring up the bookmakers on the sly and place a bet for him. I don\u2019t go on about being an artist because they will ask me about paintings. If I tell them that my work is sitting here in this hospital knitting it will just upset them.<\/p>\n JM 2026: What is it you’re trying to do?<\/p>\n JM 2006: I am looking for ways to highlight all the stories fizzing around in a place like this. Hospitals have to be very clean. There should be no residue left behind from people. With these pillowcases I have found a sneaky way to leave a keepsake. I am trying to make the hospital remember the people who pass through it, beyond their medical ailments. When I am there on Wednesdays I see so much mischief, so much humour. I want to stitch this into the infrastructure of the hospital as a sort of welcome, to lay the ground for more mischief.<\/p>\n JM 2026: When you look at your practice as a service you are not so miserable. You are good at finding the thing that is missing in a place. You are cringing at the art world because you don\u2019t really belong in it. In those rooms \u2013 studios, galleries, openings \u2013 you are at your most maladroit, like a wonky donkey. Stop trying. Move on. The term ‘post studio practice\u2019 isn\u2019t widely used yet but you\u2019re going to love it. Eventually you\u2019ll realise that not fitting into the categories is your strength.<\/p>\n JM 2006: I have to put down this embroidery now and go and turn into a DJ. There are three of us. We are called Vaginal Vinyl and tonight we are playing a slow set on the Nightlink bus so people might get the shift on the way home. We have put pink gels over the lights to make it extra romantic.<\/p>\n JM 2026: You think your DJing is unrelated to your embroidering. You enjoy the split. But it is all you joining people together in different ways.<\/p>\n Read more about Jennie Moran’s residency at Galway University Hospital here,<\/a> and read more from the Get Creative series here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a new series, acclaimed artist Jennie Moran explores the road to developing a successful art practice. Jennie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-542438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"N\/A\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/00249f20-614.jpg\"\/)
\n2006: Jennie sits in her studio<\/p>\n![\"N\/A\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/00249f23-614.jpg\"\/)
\nA bedside tree, embroidery by Jennie Moran<\/p>\n![\"N\/A\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024a093-614.jpg\"\/)
\n‘My hands are busy translating little pieces of stories onto hospital regulation bed linen.’<\/p>\n![\"N\/A\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/00249f1f-614.jpg\"\/)
\nThe Vaginal Vinyl team, on the Nightlink bus<\/p>\n