David Caron meets stained-glass artist Phyllis Burke, who tells him, ‘a sculptor’s medium is stone, wood or metal, a musician’s is sound, a glassblower’s is glass – but a stained-glass artist’s medium is light, and glass is their tool’
David Caron: You were born in 1930 in Kildare town, before moving to Dublin aged fifteen. Did you come from an artistic family and was your creativity encouraged?
Phyllis Burke: Not really, though my mother painted as a pastime and my older sister, Clare, who later became a nun, used to encourage me to draw. There was no drawing on the curriculum in Kildare, but aged eleven I went to school in Roscrea. The fact that they had drawing classes was an inducement to go to boarding school.
DC: When did you begin attending the National College of Art, and what was your experience like?
PB: I started attending evening classes when I was eighteen. I had Mr [James] Golden first, who taught the basics, and then the next year I went into the life class with Maurice MacGonigal and Seán Keating. I used to attend Seán Keating’s anatomy class too. They were both very good teachers. There was also John Kelly, and I attended Domhnall Ó Murchadha’s sculpture class.
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