VICTORIA Mary Clarke says painting helped her get through the pain of Shane MacGowan’s illness and sad death last year.
The author is gearing up for the preview of her first solo art exhibition ‘Angels of Trea Collective’, in Dublin on Thursday.
Clarke is still grieving the loss of her rock legend husband’s sad passing last November after a brave struggle with illness.
The Pogues icon lost his health battle aged 65, but his widow told how the arts had helped her navigate the grieving process.
Ahead of the event, which will feature music from Imelda May, Victoria explained: “These paintings hold immense personal significance for me.
“They were a positive energy source of strength and comfort during Shane’s illness, and again when he died.
“The angels are powerful, benevolent beings with distinct personalities and purposes.
“They are meant to be shared, and I hope by spreading their beneficial vibrations everywhere, they will offer solace and joy to all who encounter them.
“Shane always really wanted me to have an exhibition of the angels, and I promised him that I would.”
Author and life coach Victoria has studied meditation, energy healing, and “channelling; communication with angels expressed verbally and through the forms of painting, prose, and lyrics” for decades.
For thirty years she has channelled angels for groups and for individuals including Shane, Sinead O’Connor, Nick Cave, Marian Keyes and Goldie Hawn.
She recently wrote about how she began communicating with higher beings as she left Shane when his battles with drink and drugs worsened.
Clarke recalled: “At one point in 2000 I had to leave Shane because I couldn’t handle the stress.
“I had never felt so alone and so desolate as I did without him and I was not at all sure that I wanted to be alive.
“But I took out a notebook and I began writing to the angels, not expecting anything at all to happen. They started writing back to me.
“At first, I naturally doubted that it was really happening. I thought I had gone mad and was having delusions. I told them this.”