The Ulysses paintings were completed for the James Joyce Centenary Exhibition at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College Dublin in 1982.

The Starting point for each painting was an aerial view for six of the chapters set in different locations around Dublin. Various patterns and ideas are interwoven between the text and the location in terms of realism and symbolism.

The Martello Tower

The tower is the location for the opening episode and is one of the three paintings in the series which use the circle as the symbol of the cyclical theme of the single day (16th June) in Ulysses.

Glasnevin Cemetary

This partial view of the cemetery reveals a small section of gravestones laid in a circular pattern of diminishing scale toward the centre forming a mandala-like structure and relates to Leopold Bloom’s reflections upon death and religion and the idea of afterlife.

Street Corner

A typical Dublin street scene where references to food abound. It is lunchtime and eating is very much on the mind of the passers-by.

The City

This central episode is itself a microcosm of the whole novel where all the main character’s movements are carefully documented and traced at 3 ‘o ‘clock in the afternoon.

The map of the ‘human city’, painted red, forms a complex maze looking down on the river, the streets and railway line creating a sense of flow and continuous movement through the city as in the circulation of the blood through the human body.

The Blooms in Bed

Mr. Bloom, studying the stars, reflects upon ‘the heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit’. Arriving home late, he picks up the pillow, place it at the foot of the bed, lies curled up in a foetal position in the opposite direction to his wife. Drifting off to sleep he is “ The childman weary, the manchild in the womb.

The womb.

Womb? Weary?

He rests, he has travelled”.

The 16th of June

A series of flashbacks in miniature recall the day’s journey through the city, places remembered and people encountered. Miniature versions of the other paintings in the series are also included.