Claremorris, Athy, Sligo town, Boyle, Kinsale, Derry and Downpatrick.
You may not know her name, but Marian Noone has left an artistic mark on all of these towns and many more around Ireland with striking murals (over 40 at last count) that make you look at that familiar gable end or wall in a whole new way.
It’s a case of the bigger, the better in terms of a canvas for Marian, whose artistic name is Friz, short for Frizelle, a name she saw and liked on a grave in a Drumcliffe graveyard in Co Sligo.
It is very close to where she grew up and played as a girl and where she got her primary inspiration from the round tower, ancient monuments and stories.
Now based in Bangor, Co Down, her work showcases Irish mythology, history and stories through a vibrant use of colour with exquisite contemporary detail.
Mural artist Marian Noone aka Friz pictured in her homeplace of Drumcliff in Co Sligo. The history and folklore of the area serves as an inspiration for her work. \ Claire Nash
Should a mural, like her striking depiction of the goddess Brigid of Faughart in Louth or Queen Medhb in Rathcroghan in Roscommon, stop people in their tracks? “It’s great if that happens. I do love that,” Marian replies. But she admits the design is for herself primarily, but with a view that others will be looking at it. She must also consider the brief given by the client. While much of her work is ambiguous, it should, firstly, stand alone as a good image, she maintains.
“I quite like when, at first glance, you can take a certain amount away from it, but as you look a bit closer, there’s more detail.
“So, if someone does stop and look, then they’ll see more. But it should also just be, if you’re walking by, you notice, [a nice, interesting image]. It should hopefully enhance the space in some way, shape or form,” she adds, modestly.
Her work now involves being perched high up on the side of a building with a spray paint bottle in hand, something she could never have foreseen years ago. She “stumbled on” street art when she moved from Edinburgh to Belfast in a bid to try and dedicate more of her time to developing her art career.
At that time, Adam Turkington was running the Urban Arts Academy, and she did a week-long street art course in between working in an art shop 30 hours a week.
“I love learning things, so I just signed up for that. And it just really organically, slowly, eventually snowballed from there. So no, I never would have thought I’d be spray painting [as a full-time job], let alone hanging off the top of a building,” she says, laughing.
Doodling
Always drawing and doodling from a young age, she jokes that the margins in her copies were littered with cartoon characters. It’s no surprise either to learn art was her favourite subject for the Leaving Cert. She later did a one-year PLC course in art and design in Sligo to figure out what area of art to go into.
Her mother encouraged her then to look at animation as an option after seeing an RTÉ Nationwide programme on Ballyfermot Senior College. At the time, she couldn’t believe there was a course or the possibility of a job in this area when she got in.
While it was a “very, very good course in that it really gave you a taste of what the animation industry was like”, Marian realised by the end of it that it wasn’t for her. She candidly puts this down to her temperament and a relatively short attention span that suits the shorter mural projects; on average, they take around seven days, and then you move on to the next one.
She is delighted, though, to see a resurgence in the animation industry, north and south, now making great use of technology. Hand-drawn animation was just coming to an end when she was in college, but the skills she learned there still resonate today.
“All my drawing skills benefitted from that study. To this day, what I’m doing is informed by what I learned during that course.”
The completed 'Owl of Wisdom' mural on ATU campus by Sligo-born artist, Friz aka Marian Noone. \ Jerome Dunne
It wasn’t until Marian moved to Belfast that she figured out a way to do what she enjoyed from the course but in a different medium, and because street art has its roots in graffiti, she believes it really lends itself to the “cartoon character aesthetic”.
Her first mural in 2008 was a bunny character on a yard wall beside a bar called The Menagerie in Belfast, and then another for Culture Night in the same year. She later started painting at events and working collaboratively with others. More and more work came in, which meant, in 2012, she was in a position to “strike out” on her own full-time.
“It’s a billboard for your work,” says Marian of her murals, which luckily, thus far, have always led to the next job.
“I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve not had to go looking for the work; it has kept coming to me.” This is partly due, she believes, to a greater appreciation for street art and the potential of underused or unusual spaces being enhanced by contemporary artwork.
So what makes a good mural for Friz?
“It’s very hard. I mean, it’s not a, I guess, a box-ticking exercise because the street art that I appreciate, the styles are so vastly different. Some are so simple, or they’re not that colourful; they could use a very limited colour palette. “And then I love something that’s, well, technicolour – really busy, detailed and highly skilled.”
Artist Marian Noone aka Friz pictured at a finished mural in Sligo town inspired by the W.B. Yeats poem 'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven' at The Canopy shopping area. \ Claire Nash
She also likes when a mural works with the design of a building or says something about a local area in terms of history. “I get inspired by where the location is usually, so I will look for a story that I find interesting. For me, that tends to be folklore or mythology that’s tied to the area,” explains Marian.
Some of her best-known work features figures such as Queen Medbh, Brendan the Navigator, James Joyce and Nora Barnacle as well as beautiful depictions of wildlife like a corncrake, peacock or an owl.
“I also love other murals that have absolutely nothing to do with the area. They’re completely abstract, and they’re not even figurative at all. So, it’s very hard to tie down; I try to get the bigger, the better, the wall and the colour.”
While on a trip to South America, she was “blown away” by the use of colour in street art, something that inspires her here, especially where we can have dreary weather for prolonged periods.
“What I find when I see beautiful street art – it enhances my mood, even if it’s just for five seconds. You go, isn’t that nice?” she says of the power of art. “In that five seconds you experience something,” adds Marian, and it is very satisfying for an artist to see others react to their work.
Working alongside her husband Gerry, she recently completed three exciting projects in Sligo town, including a new mural, ‘Cloths of Heaven’ inspired by the WB Yeats poem at The Canopy shopping area, and a reinstallation of the ‘Owl of Wisdom’ mural in ATU.
The visual artist, who also works with acrylics and digital art, started an online shop during the pandemic to bring her mythical designs to life in everyday objects like throws, enamel pins and prints. Her art has taken her to some very cool places so far, she says, in Ireland and abroad, and she’s looking forward to seeing what’s next around the corner.
One exciting event she will be preparing for in her studio in the coming months, with the help of Arts Council NI funding, is a major solo exhibition of her work next March in Bangor.
In the meantime, her murals countrywide continue to brighten up people’s day.
See thisisfriz.com or @thisisfriz on Instagram.
Claremorris, Athy, Sligo town, Boyle, Kinsale, Derry and Downpatrick.
You may not know her name, but Marian Noone has left an artistic mark on all of these towns and many more around Ireland with striking murals (over 40 at last count) that make you look at that familiar gable end or wall in a whole new way.
It’s a case of the bigger, the better in terms of a canvas for Marian, whose artistic name is Friz, short for Frizelle, a name she saw and liked on a grave in a Drumcliffe graveyard in Co Sligo.
It is very close to where she grew up and played as a girl and where she got her primary inspiration from the round tower, ancient monuments and stories.
Now based in Bangor, Co Down, her work showcases Irish mythology, history and stories through a vibrant use of colour with exquisite contemporary detail.
Mural artist Marian Noone aka Friz pictured in her homeplace of Drumcliff in Co Sligo. The history and folklore of the area serves as an inspiration for her work. \ Claire Nash
Should a mural, like her striking depiction of the goddess Brigid of Faughart in Louth or Queen Medhb in Rathcroghan in Roscommon, stop people in their tracks? “It’s great if that happens. I do love that,” Marian replies. But she admits the design is for herself primarily, but with a view that others will be looking at it. She must also consider the brief given by the client. While much of her work is ambiguous, it should, firstly, stand alone as a good image, she maintains.
“I quite like when, at first glance, you can take a certain amount away from it, but as you look a bit closer, there’s more detail.
“So, if someone does stop and look, then they’ll see more. But it should also just be, if you’re walking by, you notice, [a nice, interesting image]. It should hopefully enhance the space in some way, shape or form,” she adds, modestly.
Her work now involves being perched high up on the side of a building with a spray paint bottle in hand, something she could never have foreseen years ago. She “stumbled on” street art when she moved from Edinburgh to Belfast in a bid to try and dedicate more of her time to developing her art career.
At that time, Adam Turkington was running the Urban Arts Academy, and she did a week-long street art course in between working in an art shop 30 hours a week.
“I love learning things, so I just signed up for that. And it just really organically, slowly, eventually snowballed from there. So no, I never would have thought I’d be spray painting [as a full-time job], let alone hanging off the top of a building,” she says, laughing.
Doodling
Always drawing and doodling from a young age, she jokes that the margins in her copies were littered with cartoon characters. It’s no surprise either to learn art was her favourite subject for the Leaving Cert. She later did a one-year PLC course in art and design in Sligo to figure out what area of art to go into.
Her mother encouraged her then to look at animation as an option after seeing an RTÉ Nationwide programme on Ballyfermot Senior College. At the time, she couldn’t believe there was a course or the possibility of a job in this area when she got in.
While it was a “very, very good course in that it really gave you a taste of what the animation industry was like”, Marian realised by the end of it that it wasn’t for her. She candidly puts this down to her temperament and a relatively short attention span that suits the shorter mural projects; on average, they take around seven days, and then you move on to the next one.
She is delighted, though, to see a resurgence in the animation industry, north and south, now making great use of technology. Hand-drawn animation was just coming to an end when she was in college, but the skills she learned there still resonate today.
“All my drawing skills benefitted from that study. To this day, what I’m doing is informed by what I learned during that course.”
The completed 'Owl of Wisdom' mural on ATU campus by Sligo-born artist, Friz aka Marian Noone. \ Jerome Dunne
It wasn’t until Marian moved to Belfast that she figured out a way to do what she enjoyed from the course but in a different medium, and because street art has its roots in graffiti, she believes it really lends itself to the “cartoon character aesthetic”.
Her first mural in 2008 was a bunny character on a yard wall beside a bar called The Menagerie in Belfast, and then another for Culture Night in the same year. She later started painting at events and working collaboratively with others. More and more work came in, which meant, in 2012, she was in a position to “strike out” on her own full-time.
“It’s a billboard for your work,” says Marian of her murals, which luckily, thus far, have always led to the next job.
“I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve not had to go looking for the work; it has kept coming to me.” This is partly due, she believes, to a greater appreciation for street art and the potential of underused or unusual spaces being enhanced by contemporary artwork.
So what makes a good mural for Friz?
“It’s very hard. I mean, it’s not a, I guess, a box-ticking exercise because the street art that I appreciate, the styles are so vastly different. Some are so simple, or they’re not that colourful; they could use a very limited colour palette. “And then I love something that’s, well, technicolour – really busy, detailed and highly skilled.”
Artist Marian Noone aka Friz pictured at a finished mural in Sligo town inspired by the W.B. Yeats poem 'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven' at The Canopy shopping area. \ Claire Nash
She also likes when a mural works with the design of a building or says something about a local area in terms of history. “I get inspired by where the location is usually, so I will look for a story that I find interesting. For me, that tends to be folklore or mythology that’s tied to the area,” explains Marian.
Some of her best-known work features figures such as Queen Medbh, Brendan the Navigator, James Joyce and Nora Barnacle as well as beautiful depictions of wildlife like a corncrake, peacock or an owl.
“I also love other murals that have absolutely nothing to do with the area. They’re completely abstract, and they’re not even figurative at all. So, it’s very hard to tie down; I try to get the bigger, the better, the wall and the colour.”
While on a trip to South America, she was “blown away” by the use of colour in street art, something that inspires her here, especially where we can have dreary weather for prolonged periods.
“What I find when I see beautiful street art – it enhances my mood, even if it’s just for five seconds. You go, isn’t that nice?” she says of the power of art. “In that five seconds you experience something,” adds Marian, and it is very satisfying for an artist to see others react to their work.
Working alongside her husband Gerry, she recently completed three exciting projects in Sligo town, including a new mural, ‘Cloths of Heaven’ inspired by the WB Yeats poem at The Canopy shopping area, and a reinstallation of the ‘Owl of Wisdom’ mural in ATU.
The visual artist, who also works with acrylics and digital art, started an online shop during the pandemic to bring her mythical designs to life in everyday objects like throws, enamel pins and prints. Her art has taken her to some very cool places so far, she says, in Ireland and abroad, and she’s looking forward to seeing what’s next around the corner.
One exciting event she will be preparing for in her studio in the coming months, with the help of Arts Council NI funding, is a major solo exhibition of her work next March in Bangor.
In the meantime, her murals countrywide continue to brighten up people’s day.
See thisisfriz.com or @thisisfriz on Instagram.
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