A bit about me....
I know its not all about me...except for now when it is....
My name oddly enough is not really Muddy Fingers but Anna McGurn. I work out of an old battered shed in Co Fermanagh, and in this shed I taught myself how to play with clay..
My pottery life started in my mid 50s when I was given a treadle wheel and a corner of the shed to work in. I enthusiastically wrestled the mud on the wheel and remember my excitement when it first connected, when a wall arose and it seemed my hands knew what they were doing. I was delighted at the grossly misshapen and truly awful thing I made, I was also hooked. And so for a couple of years I worked in my corner of shed, my skills improving, my addiction growing. I have always been creative, I love to paint and draw but working with clay held a different fascination,.
And then I discovered sculpture and a whole new love affair began..
The journey so far
My ceramic story really opened up when on a whim and because it was a wet rainy Sunday with nothing to do, I submitted an application to become a contestant on the Great Pottery Throwdown.
Surprisingly they called me back and back until I found myself in a hotel with 11 other bewildered strangers whom I was about to embark on a great adventure with. These strangers have become close friends, mentors, knowers and sharers of things, they have become my tribe.
The show was an incredible and positive experience and I learned so much from it. It was here I realised sculpture was much more my thing, but perhaps most of all it gave me confidence in my work, it gave me self belief and it was this that has allowed me to develop and find my own style of making. This experience is something I will be forever grateful for.
Exhibitions
June 2022 - ForM Sculpture Exhibition, Bangor Walled Garden, Bangor, Co Down (Group Exhibition)
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October 2022 - Cloth and Clay - a joint exhibition with textile artist Patricia Kelly (Joint Exhibition)
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June 2023 - ForM Sculpture Exhibition, Bangor Walled Garden, Bangor, Co Down (Group Exhibition)
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August 2023 - Ceramics Ireland Members Exhibition, the Printworks, Dublin Castle (Group Exhibition)
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August 2023 - Mother Nature, Strule Arts Centre, Omagh (Group Exhibition)
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September 2023 - Sculpture in Context, National Botanic Gardens, Dublin (Group Exhibition)November 2023
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November 2023 - Form, Function Flourish, Island Arts Centre, Lisburn. (Group Exhibition
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​June 2024 - ForM Sculpture Exhibition, Bangor Walled Garden, Bangor , Co Down (Group Exhibition)
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August 2024 - Just Us, Strule Arts Centre, Omagh, Co Tyrone, (group Exhibition)​
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Art Events
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July 2022 - Celebrating Ceramics, Waterperry Gardens, Oxford
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August 2022 - Belfast Potters Market
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December 2022 - Belfast Potters Christmas Market
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May 2023 - Craft in Focus, Hever Castle, Kent
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August 2023 - Belfast Potters Market
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August 2023 - Clare Potters Market
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December 2024 - Belfast Potters market
Project Work
WELLNESS THROUGH NATURE
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January - July 2023 - Community Art Project facilitator for Wellness Through Nature: The Special Birds of Lough Erne. I was engaged as Community Art Project facilitator for Wellness Through Nature: The Special Birds of Lough Erne. Working with the Lough Erne Landscape Partnership (LELP), delivering an innovative community art project focusing on the decline of the curlew population of Lough Erne. This project was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The aim of the Wellness Through Nature project was to engage people with the Fermanagh landscape with a special focus on the need for conservation and protection of Breeding Wader Species, such as Curlew.. My role as art project facilitator involved holding community workshops across Fermanagh, each workshop had a different focus on the main theme. A broad cross section of the local community with varying levels of experience committed themselves to this project and every person created beautiful pieces of work that stood on their own but also contributed as part of a larger group piece.
The work created was exhibited in 3 different locations in Fermanagh. The heart of the exhibition revolved around the profound connection between art and nature, as artists delved deep into the Fermanagh Landscape, its cherished memories, and the imperative need for conservation and protection of its local species.​
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AMAZING THE SPACE
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January 2024 - Amazing the Space is a youth led peace imitative project funded by Cooperation Ireland. The schools of Newry and South Armagh came together as part of this project and I had the privilege of working with them providing a ceramics workshop. The pupils involved really engaged with the clay and the very spirit of the project and this was evident in the beautiful and characterful pieces they created.​
FARM WALK PROJECT​​
May 2024 - Farm Walk Project.This project is a wonderful way to combine the arts with creative thinking around managing farming practices and sustaining biodiversity. My part in this was digging the clay from our land and asking all the participants to collect a little foliage on the walk, which they then pressed into the clay to create a little tile. This dark wild clay fires up to a beautiful terracotta. I love that I can use the land for creative practice, farming and art is not so far apart after all.
This innovative project is funded through the @creativeireland shared Ireland programme and facilitated by @leitrimcountycouncil and @thedockarts who work with artists and farmers to host six creative Farm Walks in both Fermanagh and Leitrim . The project is co-created with the Leitrim Sustainable Agriculture Group and @ulsterwildlife in Fermanagh.
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