Pamela Dunne

Pamela Dunne is a Limerick-based artist and printmaker. A graduate of Limerick School of Art and Design and the University of Ulster, her work has been featured in many printmaking collaborations including Plan A/Plan B (2015) by Limerick Printmakers. In 2016 she was invited to contribute to the National Self-Portrait Collection in the University of Limerick. In her practice Dunne continually tries to investigate the relationship between printmaking, drawing and photography.

Hunt Museum

Maneki-neko

 

Copperplate engraving
10 x 10 cm

Maneki-neko, literally ‘beckoning cat’ is a common Japanese talisman believed to bring the owner good luck: there is an example in the Hunt Museum (MG 117B). An impoverished shopkeeper, with barely enough to feed himself, takes in a starving, stray cat. In gratitude, so the folklore goes, the cat sits in the front window beckoning customers and bringing prosperity as a reward to the charitable proprietor.

Growing up cats have always been a beckoning presence calling us to deeper understanding. As kids we learned about life’s challenges and rewards playing with and looking after them. Birth; life; health; sickness; death; loss and love: we were present through it all.

Limerick Museum

Mr Collins’ Rock

 

Mixed media sculpture
30 x 30 cm

‘On Sept 10th 1813 a number of meteorites fell in County Limerick. We are informed that there were three large meteorites weighing 65, 24 and 17 pounds. In addition, there were six or seven smaller meteorites. All falls were in a three-mile radius. A 65 pound one had been lost sight of by scientists until in 1945 it was recognised by a Mr J. A. Morrison of the Irish Land Commission in the house of a Limerick farmer, Mr John Collins.’ 
Extract from Irish Astronomical Journal

Among the collections of Limerick Museum is a meteorite fragment found on the street in Adare in 1813 (LM 0000.0519). Another meteorite that fell in the same shower was found in the house now owned by my parents and once occupied by John Collins. Geology has always intrigued me and this story has fascinated me since I was a young girl. Kilcornan (Stonehall) is a place rich in limestone and this limestone is rich in fossils. With this work, Mr Collins’ Rock, I have continued my passion looking for fossils while simultaneously searching for rocks that come from the heavens.