Modern Femininity through Myth and Folklore - Bronagh Lee
Bronagh Lee, illustrator from Dublin, engages with contemporary feminine norms in her work, drawing inspiration from mythology and folklore to depict modern female experiences.
Bronagh Lee is an illustrator from Dublin, who graduated from NCAD in 2016 with a BA degree in Fine Art Printmaking. Bronagh creates storybook style illustrations, drawing inspiration from mythology and folklore, while commenting on contemporary feminine norms in society. She shared some words about her experience as an artist:
My work tends to focus around femininity, embracing your own body and breaking some misconceptions that still linger within our modern day society. I like to be a bit playful in my execution and process, mainly because I enjoy creating work that way but also because I like the contrast between these innocent, storybook-like illustrations and the more deep rooted context that lies beneath these colourful visuals. There is a humour to my work but with more serious layers and I find this cohesion gets the point across in a digestible way to any kind of audience. Basically, I want to make people smile but have a deeper impact simultaneously.
A lot of my inspiration comes from mythology and folklore from a wide range of cultures (Irish, Greek, Egyptian, Japanese - to name a few). It could be the simplest of thing like a symbol or narrative that then spurs on another idea, like a little step ladder to my imagination. Books and stories have been my fuel of inspiration and where my love of art and design was born; one book in particular always captivated my imagination when I was younger, Enid Blighton’s Faraway Tree, which funnily enough was one of my mam’s favourite books when she was growing up. She used to read it to me before bed every night and I probably made her reread it ten times. Any kind of fantasy book about magic hidden worlds just sucked me in, so I guess I just wanted to start creating my own little worlds.
Since leaving NCAD, I’ve gone from feeling totally lost to now finding my groove that I couldn’t quite seem to grasp while I was in college. During my time there, I was in a bit of a bad spot mentally and lacked confidence which in turn, impacted my work. In this kind of field, I feel like the main thing to have is confidence in yourself and your work. It’s so easy to feel like you might not be doing the right thing or, if your work is “serious” enough, but sometimes, the world just needs a bit of colour and that’s more than enough.
Follow Brónagh on Instagram here and check out a gallery of her work below.
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