My name is Ailbhe Wheatley and I am a writer and visual artist from Ireland.

Inspired by journeys both inside and out, figures of speech and creatures of all kinds, my work reflects on my love of play. It is influenced by my childhood growing up in rural Ireland, and a series of adventures (and misadventures) on the earth. I have a BA in English Literature and a Masters in Authorial Illustration from Falmouth University. My background and interest yoga teaching and philosophy informs my artistic practice, which explores themes of interrelationship and embodiment. When I paint I am poised, swept into the colours, waiting for that tiny moment of affirmation when the world makes sense again. My visual practice is a way to dream up or reimagine an ideal, but it is never too far away from the senses. When I write, I am feeling it all, rummaging my way through a flurry of thoughts and feelings. I write to release. I make art to step out of my current experience, if only very briefly.  The basis of my practice is storytelling. This is a multidisciplinary practice incorporating poetry, drawing, movement, photography, performance and.. listening. Creation becomes a means of peeling back the layers, an experience drawn through the imagination.  These ‘picture stories’ are observation of that eternal landscape— the beat within, a path misplaced, a door disclosed, a footprint in some old forgotten place...