BIO

Deirdre helps busy people use mindfulness to connect with their creative flow

Creative Coaching
A professional studio artist and experienced educator, Deirdre has developed and taught creative curricula within universities and community art centers for over twenty years. After experiencing burnout professionally before motherhood and personally after, Deirdre developed a meditation practice to alleviate stress and to attempt to integrate her art and life. Understanding that creative expression is a balm to burnout - she dedicated herself to finding calm within the storm to nurture deep creative work. She realizes now that making time and space for creativity is crucial to her survival, and not optional. She coaches clients who want to design their practice of mindful creative expression in a similar way - to alleviate the stress and anxiety that lead to burnout. If you’re interested in designing a custom structure for your own creative work - find out more about the program she developed to begin this process: Art & Play

Background & Lineage:
Originally from Ireland, Deirdre has lived in the US since 1993. In 1996, while living in San Francisco, she was introduced to the philosophy of Zen Buddhism by artist David Ireland with whom she studied. He became her mentor and friend during graduate school. She earned graduate degrees in both fields of art and architecture. Previously the director of the non-profit architecture organization “Sacred Space International,” she’s passionate about helping people carve out dedicated sacred space in their lives for mindful creativity.

Being an Artist-Mother: Integrating Art & Life
In 2013 Deirdre became a mother and for six years her art practice was confined to the domestic realm. Creative expression consisted of a kind of “Maintenance Practice” where laundry, cleaning and organizing became her version of “Chop Wood, Carry Water” as it’s called in the Zen tradition of Buddhism. As her child grew, and after he returned to local neighborhood school after pandemic closures, she began expanding her studio practice again, out of the home and back into the broader world. She sees herself as a “Re-emerging Artist.” Currently she has an active studio on the ninth floor of the professional arts space: Mana Contemporary in Chicago. For the duration of the year 2022, Deirdre was resident at Spudnik Press, a community print collective. She explored printmaking techniques using recycled cardboard and made a series of collagraphs and intaglio prints. She produced a large body of print works which were exhibited in the Spudnik Annex Gallery in January, 2023. She is a resident in one of the last rental properties within the green neighborhood of Lakewood-Balmoral in Edgewater, near her beloved Lake Michigan.