“The Living Fabric” exhibition showcases work of Offaly artist

An Offaly artist whose magnificent range of bespoke fabric dolls has pride of place in hearts and homes across the world will launch a new exhibition of her unique work in Mullingar next week.

The exhibition, called “The Living Fabric” will open on Tuesday evening next, February 21, at 6pm in The Atrium space at the Westmeath County Council building in Mullingar. The official opening will be performed by well-known writer and broadcaster, Manchán Magan, and the exhibition will run until March 3 next.

Teresa is Creative Director of Teresa Doyle Bespoke Dolls and Crafts which is based at her home in the north Westmeath village of Ranaghan, outside Collinstown , over 60 km away from where she was born in the townsland of Kilcavan, Geashill, on the Offaly border with Laois.

A graduate of Limerick College of Art and Design, she is rapidly making a name as the doll maker of Ireland’s Ancient East, and regularly receives orders for her unique range of bespoke memory dolls from clients all over the world.

Memory plays a big part in Teresa Doyle’s work, and she fashions fabrics and personal items supplied by each client into a magnificent male or female memory doll which becomes a forever keepsake and keeps the memory of a loved one alive for the receiver.

Having spent over a decade living in New York, where she met her husband, Tommy ‘Jogger’ Doyle from Collinstown, the mother of three adult children admits that being an emigrant has helped to shape her work as an artist.

“I spent a lot of time in New York observing the Irish community, and I think when you move away from everything that you are familiar with and observe how people either flourish, or don’t, in a new environment, it teaches you a lot of life lessons, and I have tried to bring that emigrant experience into my work since returning to Ireland,” she says.

The whole process of ordering a memory doll can be “a very emotional experience” for many people, particularly those who have lost a loved one, and this is something Teresa Doyle is very conscious of.

She loves working with all types of fabrics, and credits her late mother, Lil (nee O’Brien) with passing on her gift of her sewing and crafting skills to her second youngest daughter. As one of eight children born to Lil Kelly and her late husband, Brendan, Teresa says she grew up in a house where she watched her mother “toil, sew, mend and remake” clothes all her life, and that gave her an appreciation for fabric. “Fabric plays a very big part in all our lives even though we may not realise it” she says.

Teresa Doyle’s long-awaited exhibition, which is supported by Westmeath County Council’s Artist Bursary Grant 2020 and 2021, will concentrate on the important role of fabric and her ability to create keepsakes from the precious fabrics that hold so much meaning for each of her clients.

She began working on “The Living Fabric” exhibition during the Covid-19 lockdown, and is delighted to be able to bring the fruits of her labours to a wider audience.

“The Living Fabric” will run until March 3 next, and is well worth a visit.