About
Pomegranate Doyle
Painter, Performance Artist, Filmmaker
I am from away. I am an alien, I find myself to be the other.
I am a citizen of Ireland, Canada (b. 1962) and now a Yank, living in Portland, Oregon, USA. Possessing three passports, I wonder, “To which country do I belong, all or none?” Thus my perspective is the other, an alien observing the unknown, an outlier noticing the strangeness and mystery inherent in every place.
My Irishness is ancient and runs through me in the ancestral rhythm of myths and the native Brehon law of my people. There my bloodline lingered within a 50-mile circle for some 15,000 years until the fevers of 1950’s Ireland lifted my father to the snow and heat of Canada.
Now, I am a Canadian but inside Home, it is Ireland. And this was true for all the children around – we were Canadian, but Home was Malta, Germany, China, Scotland, Italy and 10 other countries, living in our freshly built houses on an old apple orchard and before that the home of the Iroquois. All of that sank into me.
And I was caught in the river of travel that had taken my father away from the “awl country” – I roamed the continent until the Willamette River found and called me in. Home, it said and that Oregon earth entered into my body. I had landed . . . and I needed a studio – for my obsession with colour.
Colour vibrates through me like the myths of my ancestors, like the land of my bones, like my father’s willingness to uproot and like the exploration of mystery/magic that compels me. Colour is my cure, food, language, and gender. I believe in colour – like music it is revelatory, bringing the question and possibly the answer.
Colour is an invitation.
I accept that invitation. And now there are paintings, performances, films and illustrations. These things want to be seen – The Ancestral Myths, the lands travelled, the power of self-possessed sexuality, the people at the edge –bending under the challenge of becoming themselves – the celebration of empowerment, the amnesiac state of mystery we all live in.
My Work
Performance:
Tapping into mystery through story. Using the body, space, prop, movement, music and art to activate the sacred unknown into life. The demands of the muse have created over 200 different immersive pieces/rituals for thousands of people over 40 years. These works are ephemeral and elusive as a part of their power – performed only once with a strict no-recording rule, each standing alone, to be allowed to unfold only in memory.
Painting and Illustration:
When there is a need for stillness – paintings. The painting will calmly stay present – hanging, waiting until you are ready. Paintings are portals through which magic comes. Using the realms of the earth – stone, plant, animal, energy (pigment, canvas, medium, painter, inspiration) – painters create a still gate hoping to pass on this power we have encountered.
Filmmaking:
This process is just beginning; performance now wants something new – it is letting go of the strict rules. Performance wants to hang around and repeat itself. OK performance, let’s use a camera.
Yoko Ono made Ceiling/Yes Painting,
creating the nurturing art environment
I have chosen to live in.
Course of Life or Curriculum Vitae
Age 16: produced, wrote, acted, directed and toured in the theatrical production of the original show, The Moon Faces. (1978)
21-26: got my first “art degree” by housecleaning for artist, Lucinda Parker for 5 years. Her generosity of spirit inspired me. (1983-88)
29: studied watercolour painting at Portland Community College under artist, Steven Soile. (1991)
30-34: studied with Arvie Smith, Paul Missal, and Barry Pelzner at Pacific Northwest College of Art; received a BFA. (1992-96)
33: spent a semester in Ireland at Burren College of Art. (1995)
16-57: created and produced over 200 individual interactive performances on myth, mystery and story. (1978-2019)
16 to Present: painted and Illustrated hundreds of works across oil, acrylic, gauche, watercolor, pen and ink, and digital. (1978-2023)
61 (present): creating the film/music video “Don’t Get Up” with songwriter Kevin Duell. (2023)
Private collections in Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ohio, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Oregon and elsewhere.