“The process of meeting Kerstin and answering questions was fun and enjoyable but when I was presented with the picture my breath was taken away and I was brought to tears.
I felt listened to and understood. These beautiful images depicting my life on my wedding dress is an heirloom. The whole process has been life affirming. If ever I feel I am losing a sense of myself I can look at this and really know who I am.
Thank you Kerstin for your beautiful artistic talent, for your gift of listening and for this amazing piece of Art.”
Richael
Biography -
Kerstin Walsh is an Irish/ German painter, known for her unique technique of painting on photographs and her large-scale symbolic paintings which she calls Dress Portraits.
Based in Cork in the wild South of Ireland, Kerstin's work is fed by her interest in the beauty and tenderness of human beings. Kerstin's inspiration comes from the myths and magic of the Island of Ireland, the forests, the oceans, the flowers and the wildlife, believing that these contain all the wisdom needed for our ever searching hearts. The symbols that she uses are sometimes new and often reoccurring. She allows them to arise, she listens for them and often only understands their significance after some time. A true testament to the magic of the Artform. Four swans, one black, engaged in a mysterious exchange. A white wedding dress telling the story of an extraordinary love. A bee dripping honey as it is held in a human hand (symbols not always reflecting reality of course). We communicate in so many more ways than just words. The Artist tries to become quiet in order to hear, feel and see more than is visible to the busy and naked eye. Kerstin is inspired by so many Artists known and less known, Odilon Redon, Frida Kahlo, Leonard Cohen, Kiki Smith and many others.
Kerstin's innocent yet somehow timeless paintings, paired with her uncommon love and appreciation for human beings have drawn the eye of many sensitive souls. She has practiced painting, creativity and a devotion to self awareness throughout her life, but as an Artist particularly since 2007. Early in her career she exhibited in Galleries, and was chosen as a promising upcoming Artist by Katherine Boucher Beug. Since then she has focused on fulfilling private commissions. In 2022 she was Awarded funding by the Arts Council of Ireland to develop a specific project in which she is telling her own story on photographs of her wedding sari, having married an Indian man in the Indian tradition, one of her greatest acts of devotion to self knowledge. In this project she is studying the ancient Art of Indo-Persian miniature painting which is deepening her appreciation for the Art of miniature and symbolic representation of universal and therefore personal stories.
Understanding the power of collaboration, Kerstin often works with fellow creatives. This year she illustrated a children's book, the poem 'Kingfisher Blue' by Lis Norris. Her work was used for the album 'Where the World Begins' by well known Cork Musician, Cormac O'Caoimh and her unique visual outlook is forming part of a music video with another incredible Cork Artist on the song 'Gypsy Moth' by Leah Sohotra. She also teaches and mentors children and adults in creativity. Her thesis in Social Work (2005) which predates her Art career was called ‘The Reenchantment of Social Work’, and explored the fundamental importance of fostering a creative attitude. It proved her hypothesis that poetry, music, the arts and creativity can change the trajectory and quality of people’s lives. Ultimately it will allow us to create the kind of world we will inhabit with pleasure and reverence.
Her work has recently been featured in The Irish Times, The Evening Echo and in RTE's 'Nationwide'.
“The Idea for Dress Portraits emerged in a window of time, when I was experimenting with colouring photographs and I was having long conversations with a friend about life, family and the universe...”
Dress Portraits are 60 x 85 cm, approximately but can be fitted to suit your space
Wedding Dress Portrait
Re-live the romance of your marriage by commissioning a Dress Portrait. I can work on a photograph of your actual wedding dress, or a stand-in. I can photograph your dress myself, or liaise with your photographer.
“Couples spend so much time and effort planning the details of their wedding to reflect their values, their taste and their dreams. During a marriage, two life stories come together to tell a new tale. A Dress Portrait can help a couple to remember what led them to their special day like no ordinary photo can.”
Created before or after the wedding, the couple can set the scene for the unfolding of their family life together whilst also honouring the voices of the past.”
So much thought, love and well wishing is poured into your wedding day. With a Dress Portrait you can relive it, every day, in one glance. It can lift you up and remind you of the vows you made to love, to raise each other up, to be each other’s safe harbour.
"These beautiful images depicting my life on my wedding dress is an heirloom. The whole process has been life affirming. If ever I feel I am losing a sense of myself I can look at this and really know who I am.”
Richael
Children’s Dress Portraits and Memory Pieces
I have made a Dress Portrait for each of my children. It is a most magical experience and every now and then they still ask me to add to them. As they grow, these pictures will remain beautiful, vibrant and alive. A place in time, but actually just an extension of the vast and endless starry sky to which we all belong.
In fact, I am experiencing now how precious the memories become. The favourite game of ‘I am a baby selkie washed up on shore and you find me’ has been forgotten by her. The last summer term of our beloved Kindergarten was missed, because of the pandemic, but the tree under which they played, made fires and sang their songs is forever in our home.
The Dress Portrait I made for my mother celebrates her passion for nature and her garden and tells our family stories.
Oracle Dress Portrait
“Become the Place your Destiny can find You” (Jumana Sophia)
I have come to see, that making a Dress Portrait for a woman can be a powerful part of the transformative process.
“I feel as women, the most important thing is to know ourselves. To understand and inhabit our inner selves with absolute care, devotion and clarity. We are powerful, but only when we sit deeply, truthfully and with all of ourselves, on our own thrones. We rule with strength and care and grace, and to be a ruler takes self knowledge and mastery over one's own kingdom. Your body, your home, your family, relationships and immediate environment, your work, your spirituality, your mind, your heart.We have everything we need to be free and that everything is inside of us and must be known.”
I would like to make a Dress Portrait with you, based on an item of clothing or artifact which is meaningful to you. Alternatively, I have beautiful images of a white dress which you can use.
In conversation, in person, on the phone or by Email/ Whatsapp, I get a sense of you, your story, your current challenges, your secret desires and hopes for the future. An image of the woman you are and wish to be. I then make a magical Artwork for you, which will reset your dial, every time you look at it, helping to direct you daily towards your destination in the stars, via your deepest inner Self.
