Sheila Moylan here…I was born and raised in rural Ireland growing up with fairy tales and a ruined castle opposite my house. I moved to London to study art.
For many years...I worked with excluded young people until I became an art tutor/musician/artist in 2015. The pandemic paused the teaching /performing and as I was unable to visit Ireland I connected with Ireland’s myths through online groups.
MYTHS AND PLACES
My art all began with Boann, titular Goddess of the Boyne river…
I made an artwork using the entrance stone to Newgrange blending it with a female figure to show her death/rebirth as the river. It made me understand the ancient art as I redrew it and also question the myth and it’s meaning.
"Boann defied convention by walking anti-sunwise around Nechtin’s well, this made the well burst into life as the Boyne river, killing her."
This transgressive act was ultimately a creative one and involved travelling in a spiral which to me relates to the spirals on the stones. Far from losing her life I believe she transformed into the river in an act of shamanistic death. Boann means white cow.
CV
Education, Shows and Collaborations1995 BA Hons Fine Art Sculpture and Psychology - U.E.L
2018 “Office Ghosts” - BHF Arts Fest - Floor 2 Uthink Therefore UART
2021 “Doomed to Decay”
2023 “Fire in the Head” - Solo Show - Set Gallery, West Ealing
2025 “Swans and Stones” - Solo Show - Open Ealing, Ealing
WRITING AND FUTURE BOOK
Neolithic Patterns and Secret Symmetries I have been writing a book about the artwork on the stones of the Boyne Valley. They are usually asymmetrical but that doesn’t mean that they are not designed and planned. The art is reduced to individual “motifs” by archaeologists but this fails to understand the internal relationships within the overall design.
As a practitioner with a background in sign writing, calligraphy and graphic design and a life drawing expert I can see things that may be missed by other more “data-centric” means. I am looking at circle geometry, ethnomathematics, and simply admiring it as a fellow artist. Kerbstone 1 at Sid in Broige is my favourite artwork of all time!