Replanting the Blue Snail Garden

Alliance Française de Cork
presents, replanting the Blue Snail Garden
RECEPTION and OPENING LAUNCH of exhibition by Canadian artist Heidi Etsell

In 2011, Heidi began planting what she calls the Blue Snail Garden: a place with imagination for soil and where stories, drawings, paintings and decorative objects grow in abundance.

In 2016, Heidi 'washed up' on the shore of Ireland after a failed attempt to move from Switzerland to Canada in 2015 when everything she owned was stolen. All her artwork, stories and notes were gone... or so she thought. While preparing for a camping trip, she found a piece of paper tucked away in one of the pockets of her backpack. On that piece of paper was Puzzle-Head Boy, a story she had written in 2013 (and also bits and pieces of another story called Scissor Girl, but that will be for some other time). 
With the help of Puzzle-Head Boy and the Alliance Française de Cork, Heidi is planting new seeds to continue cultivating her Blue Snail Garden.
Heidi Etsell was born in Ontario, Canada and lived in Switzerland for several years.
She is a mixed-media artist and children's book author who uses mediums ranging from paper, paint and ink to puzzle pieces, old light bulbs and rusty bits that she picks off the ground wherever she may be. She draws, paints, does paper cutting, and wire sculpting. From time to time, she pulls out some sterling silver wire and makes unique pieces of jewellery.

In 2012 she wrote, illustrated and published her first children's book, A Little Blue Whisper.
Heidi is currently based in Cork, Ireland.

The exhibition will run until Friday 25th November.