Artist Mary Duffy.

Visitors to Wicklow Library are in for a treat this month as Mary Duffy unveils a vibrant series of paintings created on the building’s own balcony. The celebrated artist describes her creative process as a distinct balance between the pithy and the poetic that originates between the ears rather than the toes.

Talking ahead of the opening of her Wicklow exhibition, artist Mary Duffy is in a flurry of activity, trying to title her artworks. She says that she is striving for titles that strike a balance between “the poetic and the pithy”. Poetic and pithy could easily be used to describe this painter. 

While embracing the description of herself as a disabled artist, she is quick to point out that this does not mean that she “paints with her feet”.

Instead, she says that she paints with her eyes and her heart.

“If you wouldn’t describe a pianist as playing the piano with their fingers, why would you insist that I paint with my toes?

A pianist’s fingers have very little really to do with the complexities of playing the piano, as most of the activity for the pianist, as well as the painter, happens between the ears, and not below the wrists or the ankles”, she argues.

“I know this for sure,” she adds with an impish grin, “because I am a pianist, as well as a painter“.

Her mother had great hopes for all the children to learn to play the piano, and her ambition didn’t stop with her daughter, who was born without arms. 

For years, Mary Duffy had piano lessons, and readily acknowledges that even though she made her debut as a pianist on Raidió Éireann, she was not a good student.

Always resisting being defined solely by her impairment, this capable and competent artist says that people who credit her toes with creating paintings are “not thinking”.

But those who comment that because of her abilities, she’s not really disabled are insulting not only her but all other disabled people as well.

“They really need to broaden their views”, she says.

“Just because I don’t fit their narrow stereotype of what disability means, does not mean I am not disabled”.

A prolific painter with over a dozen solo shows under her belt, from The Bold Gallery in Galway in 2007 to the Courthouse Arts Centre in Tinahely in 2022 and The Buttermarket in Kenmare the following year, she has exhibited consistently since she graduated from art college in 1983. 

The idea of painting from the balcony, the view of the river to the sea, was conceived in the summer of 2023. That summer, the artist was researching venues to show her work.

As a disabled artist, she is keen to only exhibit in accessible venues, narrowing her choices considerably. Even though her work is in both public and private collections, she recognises that, as a practicing artist, she has fewer and fewer opportunities in recent times. 

However, Wicklow’s Library, with its bright and airy exhibition space on the top floor, provides a fantastic opportunity, not only to exhibit, but also to create paintings on site.

With support from the Arts Council in the form of a bursary through Wicklow County Council Arts Office Artist Award Scheme, she began painting on the balcony in June last year.

Her exhibition, which opened on December 4th, will benefit from the very relaxed atmosphere in Wicklow Library. This environment will uniquely allow her to “engaging with all who come and visit,” she hopes.

“Now that I am in charge”, she says, “I am thinking to myself, I don't have to have an opening. I don't even have to hang a specific number of paintings. I can leave some walls blank if I want. I can show videos of my work in progress. It's entirely up to me.” She finds this prospect both terrifying and exhilarating. Instead of a formal reception with guest speakers and speeches, the artist will host three "open afternoons" with mulled wine and mince pies.

“I may give a talk, with images and videos of the paintings in progress. The possibilities are endless, and they are beguiling”. 

But for now, we leave this artist busy, scratching her head with her big toe, thinking of pithy and poetic titles for her paintings.