Go Leor

08/08/2026

Issue 12 of Go Leor is finally here!

This issue features six remarkable artists and makers:

💍 Dee Magee, whose jewellery and animation explore identity, storytelling and sustainability.

🎨 FÉOIL, whose illustration and street art confront trauma, otherness, identity and the body.

🔥 Vicki McCorkell of Fallen Embers Pyrography, who creates extraordinarily detailed artwork through fire and wood.

🪟 Helen Hancock, whose deeply personal glasswork preserves experiences of motherhood, memory and loss.

📸 Greta Baltic, whose photography celebrates Lithuanian identity, cultural heritage and pride.

🖌️ Martina O’Connor, whose vibrant paintings transform everyday objects and personal memories through colour.

I want to offer an enormous thank-you to Dee, FÉOIL, Vicki, Helen, Greta and Martina - not only for trusting me with your stories and sharing your work, but also for your incredible patience while I created this issue. It took me longer to bring everything together than I had hoped, and your understanding throughout meant a great deal to me.

I’m very proud to finally share your work with Go Leor’s readers.

Issue 12 is available to read online now through the Go Leor website.

For anyone who would like a printed copy, Patreon is the cheapest way to receive the magazine. Individual copies can also be ordered from an independent printer through the Go Leor website.

Read Issue 12 and find the print options here:
https://go-leor.co.uk

20/07/2026

When I spoke with Syrian artist and teacher Seba Brhom, one of the things I most wanted to preserve was the fullness of her story. It includes war, separation and refuge, but it is not only a story of survival.

Before coming to Northern Ireland, Seba worked as a primary school teacher in Syria. Art had also been part of her life from childhood, encouraged first by her mother and by a teacher who invited her to share drawings in her homework books. Seba describes that early support as “the first flame,” but she is equally clear about the personal effort it took to pursue her own ambitions.

After arriving here, Seba found an opportunity to bring teaching and art together again by volunteering as an art teacher in schools for almost two years. She uses drawing, fabric, recycled materials, Arabic ornamentation and both Arabic and English lettering, while approaching every child as an individual with their own way of thinking and learning.

One of the most affecting parts of our conversation was Seba’s memory of leaving her hotel after three months and walking outside. She had been worried about how strangers might react to her, but instead encountered smiles, greetings and kindness.

“Here I found myself,” she told me, “and felt that I was still alive.”

Seba has tried to return that welcome through her own work. She created an artwork for Belfast City Hall to say, in her words, “thank you very much with all my heart and art,” and has also made pieces recognising people and organisations that helped her rebuild a public and creative life here.

In one community workshop, participants introduced themselves without words by creating maps of their home countries from recycled fabrics. Seba then arranged the individual maps around a map of Northern Ireland, with arms embracing them. It became an artwork about maintaining where you come from while being welcomed somewhere new.

What comes through most strongly in Seba’s story is her determination to give as well as receive. She teaches, learns, shares her culture and uses art to make gratitude visible. Her parents, whom she has not seen in more than ten years, remain present in the values she carries into that work.

Thank you to Seba for trusting me with her story and for speaking so openly about her family, teaching, displacement and the communities that helped her find herself again.

Read the full interview with Seba through the link below:

A Syrian artist and teacher now living in Northern Ireland, Seba Brhom uses drawing, fabric, Arabic lettering and community workshops to share beauty, memory and gratitude.

06/07/2026

Go Leor Issue 11 is now live and available to read online now.

This month’s issue brings together six artists and makers whose work touches on migration, love, belonging, memory, performance, teaching, textiles, illustration and remembrance.

Featuring Seba Brhom, KODJO, René Mullin, Laura McKenzie Atkins, Deirdre Murphy and Aodh O’Cuana, Issue 11 is now available to read in full on the Go Leor website.

The individual articles will be available tomorrow, along with the print issue for individual orders. Patreon subscribers will also be receiving their print copies soon.

Thank you so much to everyone featured in this issue, and to everyone continuing to read, share and support the magazine.

Read Issue 11 online now at:

go-leor.co.uk

17/06/2026

It was amazing to chat to Dylan from Hearthfire Tales, joining from the professional studio they use to record podcasts, campaigns and so much of the work that has grown around Hearthfire Tales.

What stayed with me most was how genuinely inspiring it was to hear him speak about the emotional connection behind the entertainment they create. With Hearthfire, it is much more than entertainment. It is belonging, purpose, friendship, performance, and the weight of decisions shared between people building a world together.

From Dungeons & Dragons and LARP to live shows, podcasts, collaborations and audience-led storytelling, Hearthfire opens fantasy into something social, visible and shared. Dylan spoke so thoughtfully about roleplaying as a space where people can find confidence, try on different versions of themselves, and feel part of something bigger than the game itself.

Make sure to subscribe to their Patreon and keep up with Ryan, Jim and Dylan through Hearthfire’s social media. I’m really looking forward to seeing the content, collaborations and future adventures they have ahead, as well as catching up with everything they have already built through their website.

Read the full article here:

Around the table and out in the field, Hearthfire opens fantasy into something deeply human, helping people find confidence, community and a place to belong.

13/06/2026

It was a real pleasure to feature Francois Got Buffed in Issue 10 of Go Leor.

His work brings such a bold, colourful energy to the magazine, but what I really appreciated in our conversation was how much thought sits behind that brightness.

FGB spoke generously about street art, skate graphics, cartoons, graffiti, found paintings, colour, process, and the way public artwork has to respond to the place it lives in. His murals don’t just sit on top of a wall. They notice the wall, the light, the street, the awkward details, and the people moving past them.

What stayed with me was how knowledgeable he was about how artists use colour - not just as decoration, but through materials, limitations, available palettes and the demands of scale, place and public space.

We also spoke about the work behind the finished image: the planning, drawing, prep, problem-solving and physical labour that goes into making something feel immediate. In a time when images can appear instantly online, there is something important about showing the process and the hand behind the work.

I’m very grateful to FGB for taking the time to chat so openly about his influences, his practice, and why he does what he does so well.

Read the full feature in Issue 10 of Go Leor:

Street art becomes a way of reading the city differently, where bold colour, sharp humour and careful placement turn ordinary walls into public acts of attention.