Paris Flynn
she/her
From Bray to Z
My practice is heavily influenced by personal experience. It aims to remind us that there is a story behind everything and that there is beauty in the everyday. As an illustrator and introvert, I enjoy exploring life’s fleeting moments; capturing how people connect with each other and their surroundings. Capturing quick interactions during rush hour in the city to the quiet moments of daily life, I translate these innocuous moments into sweet narrative scenes.
‘From Bray to Z’ explores my relationship with my hometown of Bray, County Wicklow. Through the use of digital illustration and photo collage, my work explores the everyday and attempts to build visual connections through stories, structures and historical contexts. The focus is to highlight specific elements of Bray in order to reignite the relationship between the town and its residents whilst redefining the town’s current reputation.
This is a comic called Lover’s Leap which tells the story of the Dargle River in Bray. This comic was illustrated in an attempt to make the story more accessible and widespread to people.
Pages 6-7 from Lover's Leap
Pages 12-13 from Lover's Leap
I wanted to explore Bray through its existing buildings and try to reconnect locals with places they can engage with and see. I believe that illustration can be used to reconnect people and places by showing a new perspective to a familiar site. For me I found that some of the most overlooked buildings are the charity shops. “All Bray has is cafes and charity shops” is a phrase I have heard over and over and I decided to focus on this and try to bring a new outlook to it whilst also educating on the town.
The month of January is shown here outside of 'Cloud 9' in Bray. Each month showcases a different charity shop in Bray with key dates in our town's history highlighted.
Month of October
In From Bray to Z, I wanted to explore some of our towns' lost structures. There is currently an effort in Bray to show our past using old photographs stuck up around the town. I think that illustration can be used to improve this effort as the photos alone are not grabbing people's attention and guiding them to learn more. The aim of this outcome is to compare past and present through striking visuals, therefore educating locals on our current and lost structures whilst also allowing locals to access information that was deep in the archives easily. This informational magazine is accompanied by prints of the inside illustrations.
This illustration focuses on a piece of broken structure along Bray's promenade. Due to the bad weather at the time it had filled with rainwater making it its own little swimming pool! The Promenade dates back to Victorian times when William Dargan, the man who brought the railway to Bray, built it as part of his plan to turn Bray into a popular seaside resort.
The original Dawson’s was founded by Gerry and Lily Dawson in 1941. A replacement building was erected in the 1980s amid controversy due to its appearance and its proximity to Bray Head. It functions as an amusements and casino.
This illustration is based on Bray's Turkish baths. The Turkish baths were built in Bray in an attempt to aid the vision of Bray being a health resort in 1959. Tourists came for the first few weeks until Baths were opened in Dublin which made the trip unnecessary. The Turkish baths were demolished in the 1980’s and a shopping precinct was built including a Tesco express.