Irene Loughlin is a multi-disciplinary artist working in painting, installation, video and performance art. She has studied at the Ontario College of Art, the NSCAD New York Summer Studio Program, and Simon Fraser University. She has worked as an artist in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver (Canada’s most economically deprived area) over the last five years, and lived in a studio located on the 100 block of East Hastings in 1997. During this time, she became an advocate in the area, concentrating on improved access and health care for drug users, and for artists with mental health issues. She is currently a member of the board of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) and is co-curating a Performance Art Series for the Vancouver Performance Art Biennale October 2001 at Gallery Gachet.

Irene Loughlin has struggled with marginalization related to her mood disorder and subsequent past substance addiction over the last ten years. She is actively involved in the disability arts and culture movement, and has been a member of Gallery Gachet The Artists’ Cooperative (a consumer/survivor artist-run center in Vancouver) for the past four years. She uses art as a vehicle for social and political advocacy and a means for creative self-expression.

In the painting, Mo Bansinsearach (My Ancestress), Irene Loughlin draws upon her Irish-Canadian ancestry and explores the passage of time and the specific quality of light that comes from the depths of the aquatic world. She investigates mythic relationships existing between humans and the sea. She captures the essence of hypnotic fascination with the Pacific Ocean that exists in the consciousness of the people of the West Coast in this painting, a fascination that also exists in the mythology of her ancestors.

If you would like to contact her, please email maeve9@lycos.com.