My name is Kirstie Maher and I am a graduate of TUS Athlone. I am a full-time street Artist who somehow managed to turn vandalism into a legitimate career. I paint everything from ESB Boxes to three story buildings. So if it has a surface, there’s a fair chance I’ve tried to paint it.

When I’m not up a cherry picker wondering why I didn’t choose a different career path, I’m a portrait artist, published illustrator (as seen on the Late Late Show 2020, young business segment), oil painter, animator, guest lecturer and occasionally I work on film sets as a production assistant or stand-by assistant.

Away from paint, I am a huge nerd and have always loved video games, books, films and heavy metal music. I can happily spend a day painting a giant mural and then go home to argue about which fantasy trilogy is the best or why the soundtrack to a game had absolutely no business being that good.

I don’t really remember a time when I wasn’t drawing. From the minute I could hold a pencil, I was drawing on anything that wasn’t nailed down. School work on the other hand…. Lets just say my copybooks contained more dragons than maths. When I was about five years old id willingly get out of bed early before school, not because I was a particularly motivated child, but because Don Conroy’s art segment on The Den was on. While everyone else was half asleep eating cereal, I was glued to the telly watching him magically turn a few pencils lines into something incredible. I was completely hooked!

Saturday mornings were not different. Art Attack was basically a weekly mission. Id be legging it around the house looking for toilet roll tubes, cereal boxes, PVA glue and whatever random bits Alex decided every child definitely had lying around. Half the time Mam was wondering where all the good scissors went. But I can trace the moment I truly fell involve with art back to one book. My dad had handed me down my greatgrandfathers childhood story book, it was a collection of stories from the Brothers Grimm. The stories were brilliant but if I’m being honest, I barely noticed them. It was the illustrations I was invested in and they were breathtaking! They were dark, detailed, magical and unlike anything I had ever seen. I remember racing through the pages just to see the next illustration, I probably couldn’t tell you what the stories were about but I could have described every illustration.

That was the moment it clicked. I didn’t want to look at art, I wanted to make people feel the same way those drawings made me feel. Safe to say, I never really grew out of it… I just graduated from crayons in copybooks to painting town walls. As I got older and made my way through secondary school, I quickly realised that not everyone shared my grand plan of making a living from art. In fact, most seemed to have the same opinion: ‘Art isn’t a real career’. It was always presented as a lovely hobby, right up there with collecting stamps or birdwatching, something you do after you get ‘ a proper job’.

My guidance counsellor was convinced id make a fantastic nurse. Now, with the greatest respect… god help anyone if I was. Id be halfway through checking someones pulse before getting distracted by the anatomy poster on the wall, wondering if the medical illustrations were anatomically correct. ‘Sorry about that broken leg, but whoever drew this femur deserves a raise’.

Around the same time I developed a completely healthy and definitely not obsessive relationship with video games. I disappeared into the worlds of Skyrim, Fallout, The Legend of Zelda and gears of war. I wasn’t just playing them, I was studying them. The worlds, the characters, the armour, the creatures, the stories… I wanted to know who came up with them. Then one day I had what can only be described as a the biggest brain wave moment of my teenage life. ‘Wait…people actually get paid to design this?’ Concept artist, animators, character designers, environment artists. That is an actual job ! My mind was blown.

It felt like someone had switched on a light. Suddenly everything made sense, I wasn’t mad for wanting to draw all the time, there was people out there doing exactly that for a living, creating the worlds id spent hundreds of hours getting lost in. I knew straight away that was what I wanted to do.

After the leaving cert, I did a portfolio course and then went to visit TUS Athlone, back then it was AIT and changed over when I was in second year of college. I spent many summers in Athlone competing in the community games and got to the All irelands art competitions and it had felt like a full circle moment to be back there. The minute I walked on campus, I just knew it. It sounds ridiculously cheesy but I had that gut feeling of. ‘ yep… this is where I’m supposed to be’.

School had never really been my thing, but standing on that campus in the engineering building surrounded by creative people who actually got it, I finally felt like id found my place. Turns out I didn’t need to stop drawing and get ‘ a real job’, drawing was the real job, and I had got accepted to into the Animation and Illustration course.

Looking back now, those four years of TUS flew. Everyone tells you that college flies by, and you nod along thinking they’re exaggerating. They’re not. One minute you’re trying to remember where your lecture is, and the next you’re graduating, wondering if someone accidentally hit fast-forward.

The best thing I took away from TUS wasn’t just the degree, it was the people. To this day, some of my closest friends are the people I met in the animation lab. friends doesn’t even feel like the right word anymore. They’re family. They’re the people who understand exactly why you’re excited about a new sketchbook, who’ll spend an hour discussing brush packs or who’ll happily argue with you over whether a character design works… before immediately helping you fix it. The lecturers deserve more credit that they’ll probably ever take. They didn’t teach us to copy, they taught us to explore. Want to try a completely different style? Go for it. Curious about how another animator worked? They’ll hand you a book or point you towards resources online or in the campus library. Struggling with a project? There was never a ‘ figure it out yourself’. They’d pull up a chair, sit beside you, and work through it with you until it finally clicked.

That kind of support is something ill never forget. The animation lab wasn’t just a room full of students hunched over a light box, pretending deadlines weren’t tomorrow morning. It was a community. There was always someone laughing. Someone making tea. Someone panicking because they’d somehow deleted three hours worth of work, someone shouting across the room asking, ‘ are we still on for D&D tonight?, and the last one person insisting they’d only be ‘ five more minutes before heading home….. usually three
hours later.

it was chaotic.
It was brilliant.
It felt like home.

People often ask me how I got into painting murals, expecting some grand plan or carefully thought out career move, the truth is, it happened completely by chance. When I was in 2nd year of college, that summer I went tile shopping and got talking to the sales man in a business called Tile N Style, he asked what I was studying in college and if id be interested in a project they had in mind. I was asked to come in the next day and met the owner Ber, who asked if id be interested in painting them a mural. Now, id never painted a mural before, He had never seen my art before, and yet he had faith in a student and complete trust in them to paint on the outside of his business. I said yes before I had time to think about how terrifying it actually was. As it turns out, that one mural changed everything. After I graduated, the county council reached out after hearing about my work from Tile N Style. One mural led to another and before I knew it I was painting murals fulltime.

That single act of trust completely changed the direction of my career. Every wall has taught me something new, every project has introduced me to incredible people. Ill never forget where it all started. One stranger looked at a student with no mural experience and thought, ‘ sure, give them a go.’ Its amazing what can happen when someone gives you a chance. I still get a buzz when someone reaches out or says, ‘ we’ve a wall… would you be interested?’

First mural, Tile N Style Carlow

“Little messenger” ESB Box

‘Oisin in Tir Na nOg’ Indoor

A couple months ago, I had the privilege of welcoming nine animation and illustration students and one games design student, for work experience. Over the weeks we covered everything from mural painting and art history to the less glamorous but equally important side of being an artist: business, clients and suppliers. Together we designed and installed murals in the engineering building, but we also looked at how murals can go beyond paint. Using VR, we explored ways on getting your designs on the wall faster and interacting with public art, I and my games design student then created a puzzle game using the murals we created as part of the game play. A huge thank you to Dr.S.Lyons Dean of Engineering for giving us the space, the constant support encouragement and kindness throughout the project. It was an incredibly rewarding experience to pass on what I have learned, and I can say with pure pride that two students are currently spending their summer painting murals.

Student margarita’s murals, engineering building, work experience

Just before I started the work experience module, I got an email from the Students Union President Dara Lenihan and Deputy President Malcolm McDonagh, asking if id be interested in giving their relaxation room a new lease of life with a mural.

There wasn’t much convincing needed.

We worked together to develop a design that reflected what the Students Union stands for. We landed on a bright, colourful concept, with the SU logo and its colours flowing around the room to represent the highs and lows of student life. No matter where you are on that journey, having a community around you can help lift you back up. That was the story we wanted to tell.
It was an incredible project to be part of, but what stood out the most wasn’t the paint, it was the people. The kindness, encouragement and support I received from Dara, Malcolm and everyone in the SU made the whole experience one ill never forget.

Im so grateful to both TUS and TUSSU. They’ve support me from my days as a student right through to inviting me back as a graduate, artist, mentor and collaborator. Without that support, I honestly don’t think id be where I am today. I get to wake up every morning and do what I love, and when you’re lucky enough to call your passion your job… it never really feels like work.

For the last three years I have been flat out painting murals all over the south-east. I’ve been unbelievably fortunate to build up a waiting list for murals and portrait commissions, and I’m still slightly baffled that people trust me with the sides of their buildings. When I’m not covered in paint, I’m in my studio working on a book/ guide to murals for beginners, all the details , tips and tricks I wish someone had told me starting out. My friends and I were recently accepted to create a animation short supported by the NTAA too. I’ve been teaching and guest lecturing, which feels strange as I feel like I’ve only graduated six months ago. As if that isn’t enough to keep me busy, I’m also currently working on a series of oil paintings and have started the early stages of my second children’s story book. Between murals, painting, writing, teaching and animating, its safe to say I don’t have much free time, not that id know what to do with it anyway..

If there’s one thing TUS has taught me, its that opportunities have a funny way of finding you.
From a kid who spent more time drawing than studying, to now making a living painting, teaching and still finding ways to disappear into fantasy worlds, I’m incredibly grateful. To all those who had a hand in getting me here. A business gave a student a chance to paint their first mural. Lecturers encouraged me to take risks. Friends became family and TUS kept opening doors long after I graduated. Thank you.