Debbie Chapman
'Deer Spotting'
Main Street, Chapelizod, Dublin 20
2016 - 2021
Dublin City Council
I have chosen in my artwork to represent Phoenix Park Deer. Chapelizod is the oldest village in Dublin. We are very proud of this heritage and celebrate it in many ways, with a Heritage Society, Chapelizod Old Village Society and Tidy Towns Association. Our history has always been intertwined with the history of the Phoenix Park, with the village established even before the boundary walls of the park were built up against it. The wild deer have roamed the park for centuries so I have decided to use their iconic image as a reminder of a sense of place. Within the artwork are small circles. They draw the viewer in and offer points of focus. The circle is the sun, the moon, a centre point of focus. The circles are in warm soft yellow against a grey background. This echoes the colouring in the artwork on the hoarding a little further up the street that was done as part of the Community at Project ‘Chapelizod Dereliction’. With the green foreground and the colouring of the deer themselves, the colouring of the artwork will be very cheerful without being gaudy.
I am a professional artist working and living in Chapelizod, Dublin 20. I deliver art workshops, museum education and community art projects. In the studio, I predominantly work in acrylic on deep edged gallery canvases but also include oil and other mixed media in my work.