Recently, I was delighted to find out that I had been awarded funding to work on my new exhibition "The Whistling Welder"
My Grandad's name was John Doonan, he was a well known Piccolo player from the North East and travelled the world playing Irish traditional music.
The music and traditions have been passed down through the generations with most of my family picking up an instrument. I play Irish Uilleann Pipes but came to it a little late and sadly never managed to share a tune with my Grandad.
By day, he was a shipyard welder, an occupation he was he was incredibly proud of.
As children, he took us to one of the old shipyard sites that he used to work in, it's a memory that triggered the idea to illustrate my Grandads story.
The project will take me to Belfast, Newcastle and Glasgow which were three of the biggest shipbuilding cities. Ill be learning more about the shipbuilding industry, its people and stories as well as its links to traditional music.
I hope to exhibit the project in each of the three cities and will provide updates as soon as possible.
