I am the eldest of three daughters. I was born to Rose and Patrick Byrne who were Irish immigrants to Canada. Struggling as blue-collar workers, their lives ended early and abruptly.
I have been recording my dreams for over 25 years and drawing imagery from words used to describe those dreams. These images seemed to be in a world unto their own, and I enjoyed going back and reading them, as they were almost fiction story-like. As time went on they began to have significant meaning for me in my personal life. Themes developed often describe a mournful childhood full of angst and exuberance.
In all the reading I have done, there has been much written about the formative years of a child’s life and the habits both good and bad that develop from these experiences. Dreams proved to me that it can be a way of looking into the past and forgotten memory. By fully engaging myself in making black and white etching and linocut prints, I have been able to reclaim memory of those early years and draw images of waking life that were sparked by these dreams.
The bond between mother, father and child is of crucial significance. It seems to me that the rest of our life passes in the interpretation of those insights. I am most interested in the subconscious, and I work intuitively. My work has been described as narrative but often more poetic than literal.
My growing body of work encompasses over two hundred linocut prints as well as etchings, numerous drawings, journals and paintings.