Looking back at my life thus far, I can’t say I’m surprised to be moving to Ireland.

I’ve always had a love of traveling, instilled in me by my parents at an early age. My first international trip was to visit my grandparents in Paris at the age of 5 – and I’ve been traveling ever since. 

Art has been another constant in my life. Whether it was doodling in my sketchbook, learning to cross stitch as a kid, or what I do now as a surface designer who’s obsessed with patterns. And I have to admit: being a self-employed artist definitely has a few perks, one of which is being able to work from anywhere.

Lucky for me, art & travel are so intertwined.

There’s just something special about being immersed in a different culture and being deeply inspired by it. Several of my travels – many of which I hope to share with you here – end up influencing my designs in some way.

Now why Ireland?

Well, although Ireland was on our list of considered destinations, it wasn’t our #1 pick. We left the final decision of where we’d end up to the universe (and whoever decided to hire my husband).

Not only that, but I have family history there – my paternal grandfather was born in Cork. So it only seems fitting to go back to my roots. It also means I can apply for Irish citizenship, which I’m currently in the process of doing. That’ll make international travel through Europe a whole lot easier for us too.

So I guess you could say it was inevitable that my husband and I would move abroad. And it’s serendipitous that we’re moving to Ireland.

Our announcement felt pretty sudden to some of our family and friends, but it’s something we’ve been talking about for a decade. The first five years it was mostly “oh, wouldn’t that be nice” talk. Slowly, though we realized it was something important that we wanted to do. And by the end of 2021, my husband and I will be living as expats in Ireland.

Our journey is something I’m incredibly enthusiastic to share with you all here at The Artsy Expat.

From the wide-eyed phase of daydreaming about where we’d live to the frustrations of planning and preparing for such a large scale move to the unknown future we’re going to embark on (that’ll hopefully include a LOT of art travel), I’m hoping to dive deeper into it ALL.

That’s what this new space is for and I appreciate you being along for the journey.