Emer Byrne is an honours graduate of NCAD. She models her sculptures in wax for later casting in bronze. Her work portrays the contemporary indulgence of today’s society in luxurious and extravagent accessories such as handbags and shoes. Her beautiful sculptures emphasise the enjoyment of such items in terms of their aesthetic appeal rather than the functional. While to Moliere ‘a fagot is always a fagot,’ in sculpture we find that a transformation can take place so that an everyday shoe can be looked at in terms of its form. Not as easy as it sounds – Picasso managed it with his sculptural portrait of a bull using a bicycle handlebars and saddle. Emer is equally clever in her turn, and perhaps this is one of the reasons she is included as ‘an artist to watch’ in latest Buyer’s Guide to Irish Art (p.490)

Anna Linnane also finds inspiration in nature though her fascination in in birds and animals. Her seemingly simple forms are, in fact, complex structures with subtle intersecting curves. Her pieces can also be seen in terms of pure form rather than the representational. Anna has exhibited at the RHA, and her work has been acquired by private collectors as far away as Australia.