The Mark Makers are a group of five women based in the Mullingar area who meet to support and challenge each other in making art. All of the women are working in art-related fields but like a lot of artists find it difficult to complete personally driven work in isolation.
The group will be opening their own exhibition upcoming on Friday April 29 in Brioche Cafe, Mount Street, Mullingar.
The Mark Makers come together in order to work in a supportive and challenging environment. These meetings take place each week in each other’s studio spaces (for this you can read kitchens ). The experience of meeting other artists who are endeavouring to produce material despite their other commitments is inspiring. The meetings also bring to bear just the right amount of pressure to ensure that they all want to bring something new each week to show progress. This focus on making is perhaps the catalyst that all of the women were searching for because nobody wants to turn up without some new work if everybody else has been working hard!
The fact that people are watching how each other’s work is developing is very useful to all concerned. The challenge offered by colleagues can often be the catalyst for good. The sheer pleasure of making work in a supportive environment where peers are facing similar issues is very important to all of the women. They also inspire each other and through laughter and good conversation find a way to help each other develop ideas and practices which otherwise would go unfulfilled.
The group consider that their work is at a relatively early stage bearing in mind that they started to meet in October 2010. They intend to develop their work and build on their practice in the coming year and to see where that leads them.
