Joy Kavanagh

Self-subject; in Bloom, 2024

Acrylic on wooden board 

"Self-subject; in Bloom is an autobiographical portrait describing my emotional mindset in the early spring. The first radiant dusk of the year prompted me to paint the portrait. Its purple glow seemed to hit the setting and the self perfectly. I am depicted against the metal debris spilling from the shed in the back garden. The forsythia bush has bloomed bright yellow flowers and its stems arch across, through and above the debris. The shift in my mental disposition is reflected in my confident, optimistic gaze. At last, I too am in bloom." - Joy Kavanagh

Joy Kavanagh is a visual artist and educator based in Cork City. She graduated from Crawford College of Art and Design in 2019. Kavanagh began using self-portraiture to examine her own performativity and personal identity construction. The self-portrait rejects rigid reproduction, as an emotive overfamiliarity with one’s features disrupts straightforward objectivity. Self-portraiture gives identity narratives back to the artist. It is enhanced by the transformations and biases associated with self-introspection. ‘Self-subject; in Bloom’ expresses her own sense of transformation at the time of the painting.

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