Sitting MEP Grace O’Sullivan has launched an interesting new election poster in collaboration with a Cork artist.
In February of this year, Grace paid a visit to Crawford Supported Studios and had her portrait painted. Today, the Cork-based MEP launched the unique artwork as her new election poster as she runs again in the upcoming European Elections.
The colourful portrait was painted by Yvonne Condon, an award-winning artist from East Cork who received an Arts and Disability Connect New Work Award in 2019.
It was painted during Grace O’Sullivan’s visit to the Crawford Supported Studios, a group of disabled artists supported by Crawford Art Gallery and MTU’s Crawford College of Art and Design. Grace met with artists and activists during a week-long tour of Ireland in February, joined by Green colleague MEP Katrin Langensiepen – the only female Member of the European Parliament with a visible disability.
The pair met with people with disabilities and Cork disability groups to discuss access and inclusion – and have their portraits painted. Grace said she was so delighted with her portrait that she had it transformed into an election poster for her campaign.
Yvonne Condon’s striking painting can now be seen on lamposts all around Cork City in the run-up to polling day.
MEP O’Sullivan said: “In February of this year I welcomed my German colleague Green MEP Katrin Langensiepen to Cork as part of a national tour of Ireland, meeting with people with disabilities, activists, service providers and carers to inform her policy-making in the European Parliament,
“Katrin has been a leading voice on disability issues in the Parliament since her election in 2019, serving as the Vice Chair of the Institution’s Committee for Employment & Social Affairs. As part of this tour we met with the talented artists at the Crawford Supported Studio, where our portraits were painted by artist Yvonne Condon. I am delighted to showcase this portrait and bring the work of the Crawford Supported Studio, and Yvonne’s talent, to a wider audience through my election posters.”
As a member of the European Parliament’s Disability Intergroup, and a carer for her own daughter, disability rights have played a large role in O’Sullivan’s parliamentary work to date.
The MEP set sail from the Port of Cork at the weekend as part of an interesting campaign trail, sailing from Leeside all the way to Waterford, in a call back to her roots as an environmental activist at sea protesting the transport of nuclear weapons.
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