Conversations with a stranger, 2006
Commissioned originally in 1996 and completed in 2006 for An Coilla Housing Estate. Conversations with a stranger is a life size scolpure of a seated figure, made from Ciment Fondu and is located in Burtonport, Co. Donegal
Lua Breen
Lua Breen, artist, originally from Dublin but living in Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal since 1985, graduated in Stained Glass and Metal from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. After graduating, Breen taught in London for two years before returning to Ireland to teach art at secondary level for five years. He joined the academic and teaching staff of the National College of Art of Design in 1973 and remained with them until 1990, the last five years of his tenure there was done by a weekly commute from Donegal.
In 1990 Breen decided to go back to practising as a full time artist and established himself as a silversmith. Breen, like all who have opted for a personal decentralisation policy, says he enjoys nothing more than listening to the Dublin traffic reports from his Donegal home.
In 1994 Breen was awarded a major stained glass commission at St. Brigid’s Church, Malone Road, Belfast where Breen says his work combines theological, physical emotional and architectural considerations and since that has practised mainly as a contemporary stained glass artist. Much is written of this work in the comprehen- sive book, Glass in the Glens, A Study of stained glass windows in churches in the Glens of Antrim, Frank Rogers 2004.
In 2006, Breen will complete a sculptural commission under Donegal County Council’s Public Art Program. For further information contact Lua Breen, Portnablagh, Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal on (074) 9136215
