Aileen thanks ‘second mammies’ with art work in Portlaoise hospital
The painting Aileen created in Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise
A NEW painting created at the Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise by local artist Aileen Donovan has caused a stir of interest online and in the wider community.
Aileen Donovan, who has worked as an artist in Portlaoise for the past few years, had spent much of the summer in the hospital looking after her son when he underwent treatment for muscular dystrophy and autistic castotomia.
Describing herself as getting swiftly tired of the constant reruns of Eastenders and The Chase rolling across the screens in the hospital’s many waiting areas, Aileen decided that she wanted to give back to the hospital, and the community of nurses, “second mammies,” who were spending so much time looking after her son through a piece of artwork that they could all contribute to.
The artist said: “And so I packed up a whole art cart for myself. All the things I would normally use. I have this little cart on wheels, kind of like a fancy shopping trolley. But I had done a few workshops and stuff locally and I had bought this thing simply because I used to haul boxes of stuff. And I hauled it into the hospital and the first night I was there, or one of the first nights I was there, as I said, I took a picture of it and I just said ‘this is where I’m going to be working.’ I really didn’t think much of it.” Aileen decided to create a twisting 90x90cms painting of a tree (pictured) with space on each branch for the many staff working at the Midlands Regional Hospital to press a paint coated finger into the canvas. As she was creating the piece, Aileen describes the staff of the hospital popping their heads in to ask how that, and other projects, were coming along.
“What are you working on now? Is there any particular meaning to this or what's the idea behind that? And some of them were even picking out colours for some of the pieces.” As her child has special needs, Aileen described it as of critical importance to have “second mammies” in the care sector and she says that she couldn’t have asked for better than the countless nurses at the Midlands Regional Hospital who became “second mammies” to her son.
“One of them, Adele, in particular, really sticks out in my mind, because she kept calling Rory. Bubba. And I remember thinking, you can’t fake that, you can't fake that level of interest or love for a child. And especially, as I said, with a very vulnerable child. And the longer we stayed, the more we were on first-name terms with them all by the time we were leaving.” On why she chose a tree as her art gift to the hospital, Aileen explained that she has always loved the symbolism of the tree, the strength of its roots, the shelter it provides, the whole whack, really.
Aileen has other pieces of art gracing the walls of different hospitals throughout the country, including a piece on the walls of St James’s Hospital, which has the distinction of being the only art piece on the whole building that management accepted from, effectively, a randomer, all the other pieces being directly sent by the National Arts Council.
Aileen’s love affair with art goes back to her days as a student, but it was only in recent years, specifically just before covid, where she saw a beautifully restored chair on Facebook wreathed in roses that the spark to pursue it in a more professional way swept through her. Embroiling herself in art-based upcycling, Aileen’s business kicked off during covid when, she describes, all the husbands out there were looking for gifts for their wives and found her online and since then she has been selling out like hotcakes.
In addition to her work in visual art, Aileen was also the secret host behind this year’s Haunted Laois Facebook Page, which called on members of the community to share any local ghost stories or unexplained haunting throughout the county. At a Halloween weekend last Saturday, Aileen outed herself on stage as the lady behind it, describing herself as mortified ahead of doing it, but also saying “sure, it’ll be a laugh.” Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
