Swimming through life’s challenges, with Noel Donnellan

Summary

In this inspiring interview, Noel Donnellan shares his journey from mechanical engineering to a successful decorative artist, navigating chaos and health crises, including COVID-19, with resilience and kindness. Discover how spiritual trust, personal growth, human connection with people and a focus on kindness can transform challenges into opportunities.

Key Topics

• Journey from engineering to art
• Impact of COVID-19 on health and life
• Spiritual trust in crucial moments
• The role of kindness
• Navigating financial and personal chaos
• The metaphor of ocean swimming for life resilience

Chapters
00:00  Noel's Artistic Journey
02:29  Navigating Chaos in Life
08:46  Health Crisis During COVID
14:37  Resilience and Recovery
16:55  The Importance of Other People
20:29  The Power of Kindness

Keywords

art, resilience, COVID-19, kindness, creativity, Irish artist, personal growth, chaos management, spiritual trust

Guest Contact Details:
To see Noel’s extraordinary sculptural vessels, visit https://www.noeldonnellan.com/

Thanks to Jacopo Lazzaretti for the intro/outro music:  https://jacopolazzaretti.bandcamp.com/album/secret-love

For all contact details (including our Associates) and useful self-worth resources, see www.SelfWorthAcademy.com

Transcript

John Niland (00:00)

Welcome to Self-Worth in Times of Chaos. Today I'm with Noel Donnellan, my fellow countryman, first Irish person I've interviewed on this podcast. Noel is a decorative artist. He is a creator of very beautiful vessels that cannot possibly be appreciated in an audio medium. He has represented Ireland at several different European ⁓ design fairs. Welcome Noel.

Noel Donnellan (00:30)

Good morning, John.

John Niland (00:32)

Good to be here. What shall we start with, the art or the chaos? Let's begin with the art, shall we? I've not fully ⁓ covered your work there. Do you want to tell us a bit more about what you do?

Noel Donnellan (00:46)

⁓ Absolutely, John. So thanks very much for having me on this morning. The sun is shining in Ireland after 50 or 60 days. Finally, ⁓ it's kind of lived in everyone's spirits. ⁓ Yeah, so I have been working as a decorative artist for almost 25 years now. And ⁓ a decorative artist is somebody who decorates interiors artistically.

and I worked through the medium of wall sculpture, barrel leaf sculpture, gold leaf and painted decoration. And since 2020, I have evolved a parallel career as an artist in my own right, creating my own works. And it's been very successful using my skill set as a decorative artist.

I have been selected to represent my country at Collect for the second year running this year and also have exhibited in Venice and in Paris also. So it's a challenge. It's chaotic. ⁓ But I absolutely love it. It's not work. When I'm doing it, it's not work. I realized that it's a gift and I appreciate it every single moment I'm in it.

Super.

John Niland (02:17)

So let's come to the chaos, shall we? ⁓ In our briefing call for today, you described some of what's been going on over the last two years. ⁓ Do you want to fill us in?

Noel Donnellan (02:28)

Okay, well, I, you know, in preparation for the meeting, ⁓ I kind of wrote a list and I said, God, go easy on the pen because it could be very long. ⁓ Yeah, I suppose if I can be honest with people because ⁓ that's kind of where I like to, I suppose.

When you hear people speak about their lives and everything, it's more authentic when people are genuine and heartfelt. So ⁓ I have a kind of a timeline, John, if that's okay, will kind of build a story and a picture for people to understand the chaos, how it come through, still in chaos and still riding through it. So I'm 52. ⁓

from County Clare, living in County Limerick. Originally I trained as mechanical engineer and I worked at it for about two years. And at the age of 28, I said to myself, know, if I'm going to be working for the rest of my days, ⁓ I want something, I suppose, more fulfilling inside myself. And I kind of began to look within myself as a human.

And I knew that there was something inside me that wanted to come out in a creative manner. ⁓ it took me off to Brussels where I decorative painting in an academy there. So that changed my whole trajectory, everything, and just brought me into this wonderful world. so I came back and I set up my business in Ireland.

worked very successfully. had to wear many hats to bring in the income and started from scratch and ⁓ bought a house, my own mortgage, all that kind of thing. yeah, I got married then and had a family and then the Celtic Tiger crash came. So ⁓ first bit of major chaos was, ⁓ I recall, ⁓

⁓ selling, trying to sell the house and basically they were going to, the auctioneer basically valued this at a hundred thousand less than the mortgage was worth. And I nearly fell off the chair. So I ended up selling it privately and I was short on about 40, 50,000 maybe. So anyways, long story short, I had to continue. I sold the house.

But I had to continue paying the balance off to the bank for quite a number of years. And a couple of years later, a phone call was made and they just with a stroke of a pen, wiped off the debt. So it was a bit of a stressful time paying for something that was gone and just tried to fathom their reasoning why they can, with a stroke of a pen, change somebody's life.

So that was that part of it. I had to diversify my work a little bit more, but it was amazing. In the Celtic Tiger crash, I actually got extremely busy. For some strange reason, I was doing a lot of hand-painted furniture. But simultaneously, my art career began to take off.

artistically in Ireland and internationally. And not long after, ⁓ I met with a fellow colleague from Italy, Paolo, ⁓ and we set up a company called Pigmenti. We were actually on Google Meet before Zoom was ever invented. Paolo had no English, I had no Italian, and with Google Translate, we set up ⁓

an international ⁓ artistic decoration company working for some of the world's best interior designers all over Europe. So it was chaotic, ⁓ but I learned a lot from it. Patience. ⁓ We really pushed ourselves, I suppose, ⁓ as a partnership. We did incredible work.

Absolutely incredible work, working for amazing designers and clients. And we're very privileged to see some beautiful places. But it was quite stressful ⁓ dealing with the modern constraints of construction, John. Everybody wants everything done yesterday. And basically, Alidzites are like, they're like ants now, you know, it's just everyone is gone everywhere. And you're expected to produce magic. ⁓

in a very short timeframe. So that was very stressful as well as been away from home. As I mentioned, I had a family and I had two young kids and that was quite hard, know, being away from my family. So one of the jobs brought us in 2020 to London and

We worked extremely hard. Like we were doing 12, 15 hour days. Like, you know, we could work 10 days in a row and then take a day off this kind of thing. like anyone who works for themselves, you know, they really, we really push ourselves, I suppose, to the limits. And I remember coming home from London and four days later, I was taken by ambulance from my home with COVID. So.

That was the health chaos, I suppose, in my life. ⁓ It was extremely frightening because at the time it was before any vaccine. the images that was in my head was of the Italian hospitals with bodies leaving in military vehicles. So I suppose

I was on my own. was in the hospital. It was extremely distressing. I was completely and utterly helpless and I really dug within myself spiritually. I basically, yeah, I've fought it myself and I have to say that the medical staff were just, angels, honest to God.

you know, sacrifices that they made. You know, at that time was, you know, I'll never forget it.

John Niland (09:54)

Let's zoom in there ⁓ for a second. Let's just zoom in there for a moment. I know there's more to come in the timeline, but you're in the hospital. It's during COVID, it's during early COVID when all those scary images are around and we don't yet know what the outcome is. ⁓ You said you dug within yourself. What was that like? ⁓

came to you as you dug within yourself.

Noel Donnellan (10:25)

Um, before I go on to that, I forgot to mention, um, I was, when I was brought in by ambulance, um, uh, two days before that, I had started negotiating on an overtime bill with, um, a client and they basically wanted to pay about 2 % of the bill. And while I was in hospital, um, on my own, was

I'm just managing to send an email and I managed to negotiate and secure 85 % of the bill. And I remember putting the phone down at that stage and I was like, thank God, because, you know, finance when you're working for yourself, it's very important. ⁓ And it's not the reason I do it, but...

I remember the nurse going to the door and because I was isolated and she said, ⁓ we know now that you have COVID. ⁓ It's been your positive. And I remember I was in like a fetal position and I was whimpering like a dog, John. That's the honest truth of it. I'm six foot two. I'm over a hundred kilos. I'm athletic and I was pissed.

stripped, you know, kind of to the bone of my essence. And I don't mind saying this, spiritually, I, you know, I'm born and raised Catholic. I don't go to mass every day, but there was one small little prayer and that I said myself to my mother taught me and it's never let me down. ⁓

I don't mind sharing it's very small. It's, sacred hearted Jesus. I place all my trust in thee. And I just kept repeating that and repeating that. yeah, I just remember thinking, will I ever see my family again? Will I live? ⁓ What's going to happen? What's going to happen to my health? And I remember.

They come in with a wheelchair and a gown and everyone had these masks, but then they put on this super heavy mask on me and it was almost impossible to breathe. And they were all gowned up like you see in sci-fi movies. came in and they said, we're off getting you a lovely bed upstairs. And I was like, okay, great.

I remember they, they, they wheeled me down the corridor and there was people, you know, in the corridors, patients, doctors. And I just remember the, the tears rolling down my face, ⁓ at that moment. And I went into the lift and I came out and I met this wonderful nurse. think she was from Eastern Europe. And, ⁓ she looked at me straight in the eyes and she put her hand on my shoulder and she said, was a guy like you.

I was here two and a half weeks ago and he came out okay. And when she said that and she said, that's your bed there. I, I just immediately, felt my heart being okay, um, inside and yeah, I suppose that was the start of it. I lost a stone weight in six days from sweat. Um, I lost a huge amount of weight.

Like I could go out and work physically for eight hours, no bother, nonstop. I remember when I exited the hospital and came home, I needed to do some work in the garden, cutting hedges. I had to stop after about, I remember counting, eight seconds, you know, trying to clip a hedge and I had to stop. I just had no energy, nothing. And I slowly built myself up then from that, John.

John Niland (14:36)

So where are you at today?

Noel Donnellan (14:39)

Where I'm at today health-wise, I feel great. We all remember the COVID time, was lockdown and all that kind of thing. So I started hiking the Galtie Mountains and I took up swimming and I took up swimming in a big way where I do open water swimming. And that has been a metaphor for my life and my work and my whole being to this day.

And it's amazing. you ⁓ you're on your own in the ocean. You're swimming with other people. And, ⁓ I remember the first big swim was from Lynch to Liscana. was a three case swim across the bay. And I remember being halfway across and I didn't know how deep the water was, what was below me, what was around me. The nearest boat was 400 meters, away.

I could see them bobbing up and down, you know, the ocean. I was halfway between Le Hinch and the Scatter. And I just said to myself, you know, I could just feel that fear coming in. And then I remember looking up at the sky and I could see this shared of light coming from the sky. said, that's lovely. it? That's too large. Maybe, I don't know. And then I don't know what came into my head, but Obama came into my head. His words, yes, we can.

And I just started to put one hand in front of the other. Yes, we can. And I got to the other side. So in life, swimming, you can't just get up and walk out of the middle of the ocean. You have to keep going. And that's my metaphor.

John Niland (16:24)

Hmm. Certainly not between Le Scanner and Le Hinch, you cannot walk out. Yeah. I know that, Bay. Respect. Respect.

So there seems to be this twin themes running through the being on your own as you were in the fetal position in the hospital, as you were in isolation during COVID, as you no doubt often are as an artist in your studio. There is a dimension of being on one's own and having to be okay with that. But there also seems to be this vital support of other people, whether it's swimming in the ocean with boats around you.

whether it's the nurse on the hospital that said, you know, the other guy came out two and a half weeks ago and he was okay. So ⁓ there seems to be a vital role for other people as well.

Noel Donnellan (17:17)

Yeah, I absolutely love people. ⁓

I remember as a child, my parents, when they got married, they bought a house in Shannon in County Clare. My father used to work in the airport and, um, Shannon was a new town back in the sixties, seventies. And I remember vividly remember standing at the gate, maybe as a four year old and watching people going by and I would be, cause he, hello, hello. And you know, John, when you often listen to different

stories with people and often people would say hello back. And I just, I love people. love working with people, male, female, all religions. For me, language is not a barrier. It's actually, it's an opportunity. Old, young, love working with kids, I coach kids in sport. I have

done art classes with ⁓ children with Down syndrome. I worked with others, senior adults as well. ⁓ So, and you know, having played team sports, the benefit and joy that brings the community. ⁓ I like going to watch, you know, the rugby match in my small little rural local

bar and having ⁓ a robust conversation with the few. For me, especially in today's world, what I've learned and I've learned throughout my life, John, is that kindness, a smile, engagement of people's eyes and being honest, I suppose, with yourself and the other person.

will open many doors and will surprise, surprise you for years and years to come. And in actual fact, that born out with me two weeks ago in London. I, when I was selected for collect, I invited quite a number of people who I had worked with in the design industry in London. Some of those people I had never worked

I had met them once and they came along. I reflected on that and I have been in touch with those people since and we're actually exploring working together. The fact that we hadn't worked together and they still came and we chatted and we were very open and spoke to each other.

to me show that, you know, people respond to other people when they are open and honest, think.

John Niland (20:29)

I love what you said there, but kindness will continue to surprise you. As we come towards the end of today, can you just say a bit more about that?

Noel Donnellan (20:35)

Yeah.

Yeah, mean, and etiquette, John. ⁓ I think I noticed when COVID came, I don't know, was it from the UK it started or the US? What I had noticed before COVID, know, people would say, hi, good morning, John, in an email and say, hope you're well. And then they would start their ⁓

business on the email and then sign off. And all that dissipated after COVID, it just went. And then with social media, which is a great tool, I use it for. ⁓ People began asking me for things, but there was no high, it was very direct, no etiquette, as in, can I have...

Can you tell me this? Can you tell me that without even signing their own name or saying my name? it's just, know, for me, it's just basic. What I have learned with myself is I have approached strangers who I've never met before. I have said, hello, how are you? My name is Noel, et cetera, et cetera. This is my business. Give the reason why I'm, I'm, I'm contacting them today and being polite and

I have got a positive response every single time. that kindness to people, it's just, that's the evidence because the evidence is sick five or six years later after having met with people that they came to see me and have a chat with me in London. So that confirms my

belief in kindness with people and listening and being present with them. For years I was not present with people when they would be talking. I'd be there in front of them, but maybe my head was gone. I have learned that when you're with someone and you ⁓ give them your time and you're with them because they will know.

John Niland (23:09)

Superb. What a great message to close on. Noel, thank you so much for joining me today. And for anyone listening, if you want to check out Noel's work, his contact details and websites will be in the show notes. Thanks a lot, Noel. Really inspiring conversation.

Noel Donnellan (23:24)

Thanks,

John.