I always wanted to work in the creative industry, but the path wasn’t so clear.
My nanny’s house was across the road from the local video shop in Kilcock, county Kildare, every week my sisters and I were treated to a video rental. Our top choices were All Dogs Go To Heaven, An American Tail and The Secret of Nimh. I was in sheer wonder at how they were drawn by hand and brought to life. Then my Mam told us that they were made in Dublin!! It was then I knew I wanted to be an animator.
When I was 17, I was offered a place in the Irish School of Animation in Ballyfermot College. The training was intense but I loved every second of it. After graduation I worked in the industry briefly and saved to go back packing around Australia. When I returned the recession had hit and I decided to go back to college, studying fine art in DIT. I returned to animation, but felt a little heart broken that I was working on a computer all day. Where have the pencils gone?
It was then I was offered an art teaching position in a secondary school. At the time, I enjoyed passing my skills and knowledge on to the students but really missed being creative myself. I decided to enrol in a part time H.Dip course in digital design in Carlow IT. No pencils either, but hey I was creating again!
During this time I also studied marketing, business and entrepreneurship. Learning about the business world really fascinated me and I thought that I would give it a shot! I left my job, picked up my pencil, took a leap of faith and never looked back.
Now I spend my days surrounded by pencils and loving it!
