Over the hill and across the street to Maria Simonds-Gooding residence we went. Yesterday we had the incredible opportunity of meeting Maria. Maria Simonds-Gooding is one of Ireland's most well known painters and printmakers from the Sixties. Her work has been exhibited internationally in places such as New York, Ireland, London, France, and Germany.
Daughter of an English father and an Irish mother, Maria Simonds-Gooding was born in India where she spent the first six years of her life. The experience she had there inspired her life-long fascination with remote places that are hard to get to and the people suffer pain. After India, her family returned to Ireland to live in County Kerry where she studied at the National College of Art, Dublin for a little. Maria resides in the Dingle Penninsula in a home she bought from a Blasket Island man.
Besides her marvelous pieces of art that incorporate textures, shapes, and raw beauty, what I took away from our visit was her explanation of why she choose Ireland as her home. In just a couple Irish words she beautifully summed up why Ireland. She began by describing a purple flower that grows all around whose roots were boiled with water to drink. This wouldn’t be just any drink but for a man and a woman who were crazy about each other but didn’t quite know it yet. After a night of drinking this elixir in front of the fire that would be then end of their single life. Ireland is the one she has drank this love potion with. And almost as if under a spell, she knows she can never leave Ireland, the one she loves.
This is the best way to explain the magnetic pull Ireland has on you. As we near the end of our trip I know it will be hard to leave such a beautiful place. Like Maria, I too have drank the love potion.
Daughter of an English father and an Irish mother, Maria Simonds-Gooding was born in India where she spent the first six years of her life. The experience she had there inspired her life-long fascination with remote places that are hard to get to and the people suffer pain. After India, her family returned to Ireland to live in County Kerry where she studied at the National College of Art, Dublin for a little. Maria resides in the Dingle Penninsula in a home she bought from a Blasket Island man.
Besides her marvelous pieces of art that incorporate textures, shapes, and raw beauty, what I took away from our visit was her explanation of why she choose Ireland as her home. In just a couple Irish words she beautifully summed up why Ireland. She began by describing a purple flower that grows all around whose roots were boiled with water to drink. This wouldn’t be just any drink but for a man and a woman who were crazy about each other but didn’t quite know it yet. After a night of drinking this elixir in front of the fire that would be then end of their single life. Ireland is the one she has drank this love potion with. And almost as if under a spell, she knows she can never leave Ireland, the one she loves.
This is the best way to explain the magnetic pull Ireland has on you. As we near the end of our trip I know it will be hard to leave such a beautiful place. Like Maria, I too have drank the love potion.