The artist claims ownership of her identity in this series of autobiographical works. In these Boyle stands  to the centre of the painting, as a child and as a woman, looking out to the viewer.  

‘The unflinching regard of her brown eyes projects a private persona – in which raw vulnerability  and her defiant self- assurance as a painter are inextricably one’  

– Philip Vann, Art Writer, The Next Generation Self Portrait Collection 2017

‘She goes readily to the past, her past, in the powerful work Mrs. Fordes Kindergarten and in the  Strangers Now – Foster Children. These works serve as a description of the female child and  woman in Ireland. In this they sit easily beside the work of artist Marlene Dumas’

– Brian Maguire, Painter, Ireland