Mary Doyle Burke: Curiosity, Compassion and Chronic Pain

In the fourth Seed Episode of the InnLyte Studio Series, artist and curator Mary Doyle Burke welcomes Dee Stoppa into her beautiful attic studio at An Chéad Tine Art Studio & Gallery, nestled in the heart of Kilkenny city.

Mary opens up about her creative journey, how art became a tool for reconnecting with nature and art during a period of chronic illness, and what inspires her work today — from the land, ancestors, and natural materials, to the rhythm of seasons and deep ecology.

This mini-documentary captures not only the quiet magic of her studio space but also the passion behind her work as a multidisciplinary artist and curator. Mary is the founding director of An Chéad Tine, a voluntary-run art organisation that supports Kilkenny-based artists with studio spaces, exhibitions, and creative events.

Her artistic practice blends sculpture, painting, and land-based materials, using handmade ink, plant-based paper, and pigments gathered from nature. Her work explores layered stories that emerge from perceived absence — particularly within the negative space of shifting boundaries across moors, bogs, and wetlands that have long entangled her imagination.

For the past seven years, her practice has investigated these negative spaces as places where boundaries do not (and perhaps should not) exist — inviting us to question, with curiosity, how we live in the world today and how our heritage and sense of place inform that. She also explores how intergenerational mapped memory can be accessed — not just as artistic inspiration, but as a portal for healing and deeper connection in both life and creative work.

Mary holds a BA in Visual Art (SETU) and, in 2024, completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Art & Ecology at NCAD. She is a recipient of multiple grants and awards from the Arts Council of Ireland and Kilkenny Arts Office, and has curated numerous exhibitions and public programmes across the country.

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