Art For Heart’s Sake

Temple Carrig is the sort of school that makes you want to resit your Leaving Cert…

Once, you know, you’ve got your Inter Cert grades moved up a few notches beforehand, of course.

Whatever about the Greystones school’s winning ways on the pitch, it’s inside the building that the real magic happens. As was demonstrated tonight, as the students unveiled their various art creations.

All of them were based around the theme of mental health, and the insights and artistic abilities on display were pretty darn staggering.

Take young Lola Morrison’s sculpture, The Human Mind, above. Or that glorious Pencil Head piece to the left. Really should have gotten that artist’s name.

There were many, many wonderful pieces on display tonight, but the place of honour was reserved for 14-year-old Tara Dempsey.

Scratch that, there were two places of honour for this talented young woman. Not only did Tara win Overall Junior Artist of The Year, for her painting, Brain Dead [right], but there was also the little matter of her Use It painting picking up Highly Commended at this year’s Mental Health Ireland Art & Photography Competition.

Noice.

It was a night full of winners. In the 1st Years, Lola won 2nd Prize for her sculpture whilst Ella Oldham bagged 3rd Prize and Eabha O’Sullivan nabbed the Judges Prize. Those awarded with Highly Commended for their works included Callum Archer, Ailbhe Carre (twice), Ella Carafa, Isabelle Waters and Meadows Holt.

In the 2nd Years, Charli Nun won 1st Prize, Emily Roe 2nd and Katie Moran 3rd, whilst Juliet Fisher and Jasmine Goode both nabbed Highly Commended. Jane Doyle won 1st Prize in the 3rd Years, whilst Emily-Kate Warnock nabbed 2nd Prize and Shona Edge’s work was Highly Commended.

We spoke with Tara about the inspiration behind her winning piece, and the inspiration behind the simple message, You Hold The Key To Your Own Happiness…