Student Work
& Units of Learning
This page showcases a selection of student artwork within their Units of Learning (UoLs) developed throughout the course, with a particular focus on social issues. The work reflects students’ creative responses and critical engagement with key themes explored during the programme.
A Brave New World
In this second-year unit, students explored satire, design history, and visual propaganda by creating lino-print posters set in a fictional future where blind devotion to technology is mandatory.
Drawing inspiration from Soviet propaganda, especially the work of Dmitri Moor, students exaggerated the glorification of technology, control, and progress to absurd extremes.
Using bold composition, limited colour, simplified slogans, and emotional manipulation, the posters mimic how the Soviets once sold ideology, now reimagined through a dystopian pro-tech lens.
Designs were developed digitally using Canva and Photopea (as an accessible alternative to Photoshop), before being translated into lino prints, bridging contemporary digital tools with traditional printmaking and critical visual thinking.
Screens, Selves & Signals
In this second-year unit, students investigate how living in a tech-saturated world shapes identity, mood, and perception.
Drawing on expressionist approaches to distortion, colour, and emotion, alongside contemporary media critique, students create emotionally charged self-portraits that respond to the pressures of online life, such as filtered identities, algorithmic attention, and the constant signals we send and receive.
Each lesson connects visual culture to technology, examining tools and phenomena such as AI, deepfakes, and digital filters in dialogue with modern and historical artworks. Through constant making and reflection, the unit challenged the myth of seamless digital progress, encouraging students to reveal the limits, harms, and material consequences of the virtual world.
I worked as a photographer and assistant facilitator on Paint Punch, a community-focused youth arts programme that engaged over sixty young people across Kilmallock, Abbeyfeale, Ennis, Askeaton, and Limerick City. The project invited participants to create large-scale artworks by punching paint onto boards using boxing gloves, combining physical movement with creative expression.
Paint Punch was developed by artist Frank McCarthy, whose idea emerged while working with young people in Abbeyfeale. Observing how boxing was embedded in their daily lives, he reimagined painting as an energetic, accessible process, taking an approach that proved hugely successful and generated strong demand from other youth centres. Frank McCarthy continues as artistic lead, with Manuela Hartlep as project manager.
An exhibition of the works created through 'Paint Punch’ was launched in The Gaff on Lord Edward St. in Autumn 2024.
This 10-week senior cycle art project introduced students to tactile, nature-based art practice through the theme of hedgerows. Delivered as one 80-minute class per week, it was designed to be accessible and engaging for students of all skill levels.
Students worked directly with natural materials gathered from hedgerows, including leaves, branches, and found objects such as bones, encouraging sensory exploration and experimentation. A range of simple techniques were introduced, including acrylic paint transfers, painting onto natural surfaces, and composing mixed-media works using collected materials.
Students also developed observational skills through leaf drawing and explored relief printing using lino techniques. These individual studies culminated in a collaborative artwork. Life drawing sessions were also included to strengthen observation and mark-making skills.
Overall, the project encouraged creativity, collaboration, and experimentation through direct engagement with natural materials.