Shannon Fennell Artist

My original proposal, a year ago, was to research Palaeolithic Goddess figures, Goddess theories, how women’s work was the basis for human development and how this was downplayed by the patriarchy. However, due to my deteriorating vision and the difficulties it causes, I had to abandon that project in January 2023.  As I struggled to adapt to the limitations I was experiencing, it was apparent to me that the amount of reading I had planned was not going to be feasible.  I made a start on my art making and this proved to me that my vision was going to make doing what I had decided to do potentially hazardous. After completing the Printmaking Studio induction, I was excited to discover a new medium that I could use without needing normal visual acuity.  As printmaking is a new process to me, I don’t have to deal with the frustration of not being able to do it “how I used to.” I can bring in my skills sets and knowledge from other media and experiment continually with the di...

On my trip to Prague and Vienna I covered a lot of miles in museums.  Aside from seeing the art and other collections I was seeking out aides for the visually impaired. I rented the audio guides (if they had them) and used them extensively. In the Upper Belvedere Palace rental was  €5. They gave me a piece of paper with some information - numbers 1 through 10 were history of the palace, etc. Which I did listen to. And it explained how the system worked. Their machines were the oldest of the ones I used but that was not a problem. Selected works had a symbol and number on the cards so you punched in the number to hear about the work you are looking at. Sometimes I found the cards hard to read - they would use the same background colours as the walls and mounted them quite low in many cases, so it was often hard to see the number. There was one item (the only one I saw that was done in this manner, and I covered every floor and every gallery!) that was deliberately designed for ...