About

I am Lynn Finnegan, an illustrator and editor based on the North coast of Ireland. My work explores and celebrates the living planet, focusing on issues of ecology, nonviolence and sustainability. I illustrate and curate information to tell empowering, solutions-based stories that provide a glimpse into the joys and beauty of the global movement of people quietly working towards a peaceful, living planet.

I have studied and worked for the past fifteen years on sustainability and peacebuilding issues. Originally studying Geography (BA) at Oxford University, I went on to train in International Environmental Law (LLM) at Edinburgh University and work in Geneva with the United Nations and international Quaker groups. When I moved back home in 2013 I co-founded, edited and designed Freckle magazine for six years, an independent magazine celebrating the people, landscapes and livelihoods of Northern Ireland and beyond. We published nine issues, free from advertising, and shone a light on almost two hundred stories of people living sustainable, peaceful and creative lives. Meanwhile, I spent two years at the Belfast School of Art (MFA) looking at hope and despair in the environmental justice movement, and joined the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, reporting on United Nations’ environment and development law and policy.

More recently, I moved to Cloughjordan Ecovillage in Tipperary for three years, where I learnt about community decision-making processes and community-based land management. I'm now based in Ballycastle, on the North coast of Ireland, one of the most beautiful places on earth! When not illustrating, I am usually outside – growing, hiking or sea swimming, pondering people's relationships to their landscapes and ecosystems.

Along the way, I have learnt that the stories we tell ourselves are more important than we realise. A lot of us find today’s crises – climate change, mass extinction, global inequality – emotionally difficult to face. Indeed, many of us avoid them – not because we do not care, but because we feel overwhelmed, numb or unable to believe we can make a difference. A lot of my work looks at how to shift this story to one of courage and hope, to shine a light on all the knowledge and experience out there that points us towards a more peaceful, living, planet.

email: lynnfinn[at]gmail.com
Fig & Ishka substack: www.lynnfinnegan.substack.com
instagram: @lynn.finn.egan*

*Like many illustrators, I’m in a wee bit of a grump with instagram these days, so don’t spend much time there. There’s still some old stuff you can browse, but you could also not click the link, put down your device and go outside.