March 27, 2011

"Bird Song" in Dublin  When we were in Dublin last November we could see this sculpture from the window of our room at Staunton's on the Green.  I talked my way through the offices of the John Newman Center, next door, and into the back yard to get a closer look. I'm wild about it... a young priest distracted from his scripture readings by a bird call, a different "word of God."  The sculptor is Bob Quinn, who lives in County Dublin and who, like me, spent decades in the advertising-graphic design-newspaper illustration game before jumping into his art full time.  
     
As it happens, my granddaughter Kellie, visiting Dublin over Spring Break from her semester abroad in London, came across another wonderful sculpture in a Dublin public garden and posted a photo of it on her blog. I knew at first glance that it had to be a Bob Quinn piece.  This one is called, "Best Night Ever," and when I wrote a fan letter to him he told me: ...the title comes from something my wife's Uncle always used to say back in the 60's when all the country female cousins would come down to breakfast after the dance the night before, "and did ye have the best night ye ever had?"  I suppose the sculpture is  meant as a monument to everyone's right to have fun-- you don't know what problems/difficulties those girls might be going through.

Bob's website is http://www.bobquinn.ie