Dingle Peninsula, Co. Cork, Ireland, August 2025 [by Montana Becker, MFA'26]Over the summer I had the privilege to study at the Burren College of Art located in Ballyvaughn, Ireland and earn MFA elective credits through the college's Ecology Studio program. Ballyvaughn is a small town located on Ireland’s west coast and uniquely situated in the heart of a landscape known locally as The Burren. The program I participated in consisted of equal parts ecological study and artmaking. I knew going into the program that making art in a new landscape would benefit my practice, but I completely underestimated how ecological study would impact my work. Learning about the ecology of Ireland while making artwork celebrating its ecological features was an incredibly rich experience that challenged my previous understanding of environmental stewardship and my role in it. Throughout the month-long stay, I had the chance to explore The Burren, which is known primarily for the unique limestone rock formations that make up much of the landscape as well as the incredibly wide variety of flora that flourish within it. The place itself felt incredibly intimate and was made more so by the fact that I traveled on foot for a majority of my excursions. The program included weekly field trips to local ecological sights, but we were also encouraged to explore the landscape on our own. These solo explorations are what led to the production of my scientific research project and the artwork for my final exhibition. Traveling to Ireland, I was most excited to live close to the sea. I have lived in Minnesota for my entire life, but I have always had a fascination with the ocean and dreamed of living close to it. So it’s no surprise that the ecological feature that captured my attention is one that lives in and near the water: the limpet. Limpets are a type of mollusk that make their homes on intertidal ranges and spend their days grazing algae off the rocks. After periods of grazing, Limpets return to their particular spot on their home rock and secure themselves tightly to the surface. With minimal exception, Common Limpets always return to the same spot on the rock and over time, they leave a mark called a “Home Scar.”When I first learned this fact I was overwhelmed by the significance of the concept. What a beautiful descriptor for a mark made through the quiet lifestyle of such a humble creature. It made me wonder, “What is my home scar?” As I dissected this question, I came to understand home scars as reciprocal relationships of impact. A home scar is our ecological impact both positive and negative. It's the effect we have on the people around us and the reciprocal nature of relationships. It’s the way we are marked by a place and the memories we return to in our mind. Home scars are the marks we make and the way we are marked by the people and places we call home.Above: Rock with Limpets and homescars in an intertidal range, Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland, 2025Above: Painting on the hillside behind The Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland, 2025My daily exploration of the land led to the production of four large paintings on raw canvas each representing a different aspect of the Burren’s ecology, including the fields and flora, the limestone rock, the grounds of The Burren College, and, of course, the sea. The marks I made on the canvases trace my experience of The Burren as a temporary home. The paintings function as tangible home scars which mark not only my experience of the Burren, but the ecological features that are so vital to the landscape's wellbeing. My art making process was informed by my new knowledge of the environment and a more direct relationship to it. For each artwork, I completed part of the process within the landscape away from the studio. This new way of working liberated my mark making and enabled me to "collaborate" with the natural world in a variety of ways. Through this process, I’ve stained the canvas using acrylic paint and various water-soluble drawing mediums. The works have also been physically marked by the Burren. Each one has been dragged across the ground, left in the rain, and covered in rocks, seaweed, sediment and sea water. These methods of making capture place by embedding it in the very fiber of the work rather than simply depicting it. Like paintings, home scars are made through quiet, constant return. The things we return to and the habits we form shape the marks we leave. Above: Final exhibition of Home Scar paintings, The Burren College of Art, Ballyvaughn, Co. Clare, Ireland, summer 2005 Above: Home Scar: Sea, 2025, acrylic & organic matter on canvas, 6’ x 8’Above: Home Scar: Stone, 2025, acrylic, organic matter and mixed media on canvas, 6’ x 4’Above: Home Scar: Flora, 2025, acrylic, organic matter and mixed media on canvas, 6’ x 4’Above: Home Scar: Burren, 2025, acrylic, organic matter and mixed media on canvas, 6’ x 4' Published on November 13, 2025