Galway Advertiser 1999/1999_01_07/GA_07011999_E1_049.pdf 

Extracted text

ETRAMN NETN ET I

The many talents of Patricia Burke Brogan
O
ne of the best known parables told by Christ is that of the talents. Just to remind you, it concerns a wealthy man about to depart on a journey who calls together his servants and gives to one five talents, to a second two talents, and to a third a single talent, "to each according to his ability".
While the master is away each of the servants must decide what to do with the sum they have been entrusted with. At last their master returns, and he calls them together again to consider what each of them has done with the sum of talents they had been given. The man with five talents tells his master that he has invested them, and made five talents more. Likewise the second servant; be has invested his two talents, and doubled the sum originally given to him. Finally, the master asks the servant who has been given one talent what he has done with i t To the master's question the third man answers, that because he knew his master to be a hard man, he buried his one talent in the ground so that he would be able to give it back again when the master returned. The master is furious, telling the man that at least he ought to have banked his single talent so that the master would received the original sum back with interest And then he says an odd thing; be orders that the single talent be taken from the third servant and given to the man with the 10 talents: "For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have abundance". What you may be asking about now, has the parable of the talents to 1 do with "Pilgrimage", Patricia Burke Brogan's retrospective exhibition which opens this Saturday January 9 in The Kenny Gallery? Well, it has everything to do with i t Because Patricia is a superb exam ple of someone gifted with many, many talents, and - very unlike the third servant who buried his talent timidly in the ground, neither venturing on it, nor even cultivating it - she has made excellent use of hers. And as she contin ues to create, those who know and admire her would certainly concur that "to everyone who has will more be given, and [she] will have abundance". Consider: she is an artist of distinction, who has worked creatively in a variety of media; especially brilliant are the superb series of etchings she has done over the years. Her work has been exhibited all over Ireland, and has featured in international shows, from Spain to Osaka. "Pilgrimage", the retrospective opening this weekend at The Kenny Gallery, collects together over 70 of her works, encompassing paintings, etchings and mom>prints. If that were the sum of i t it would be evidence that her sum of talents had been put to good use. But consider now that Patricia is also a highly regarded poet and short story wntex, whose work has appeared in many anthologies, including The Salmon, Seneca Review (Hobart and William Smith Colleges, New York), Gill and MacMillan Anthology, Ireland's Women: Writings Past and Present. Galway's Pirate Women, and the Girt Journal. In 1994 her collection. Above the Waves: Calligraphy, was published by Salmon: containing her poems and a sample of her etchings, this unique collection provides an entry point to this investment of her talents. But Patricia is also a playwright whose powerful and haunting play Eclipsed, a work of great compassion, demonstrated her uncanjny ability to create credible and sympathetic characters out of what might appear to be unpromising material. A work of art, first and i foremost. Eclipsed also had a remarkable unin| tended effect on Ireland and, through produc') tions in Europe and the United States, in many [other parts of the world. Its sensitive treatment f of a shadowy episode in Irish history - the ! young women and the nuns associated with the Magdalen homes - was a catalyst for a major act of national soul-searching. And at the still centre at the heart of the whirling and spinning creativity is Patricia Burke Brogan, a slight figure, with a soft voice, and eyes that express kindness but can also flash with indignation if injustice happens i to swim into her ken. A charming woman, a loveable person, and an artist - taking thai i word in its widest sense - of many talents wise[ ly invested: "to everyone who has will more be given, and she will have abundance"

JO'C