About expressionist Irish artist PIGSY
Irish Artist PIGSY
Born on the North Side of Dublin in Ireland, Ciarán McCoy is an Irish Artist and award winning architect (ODKM Architects). He borrows from his architectural knowledge to create his diverse expressionist art work as his alter ego “PIGSY”.
The mediums that Pigsy uses range vastly from everyday household acrylic paint, chalk, oil sticks, acrylic sticks, oil paint, spray paint, charcoal and any other medium that feels right at the time of painting. McCoy explains “I like the looseness of my paintings I don't really want to put boundaries on myself or to be neat and proper. That's my architectural life. I like to be able to express myself freely in a fast free-flowing loose way - I really like the imperfection of the process”.
Honesty & Emotion in Art
"Many of my paintings are self portraits or semi-biographical, I paint about the things going on in my head at the time of painting. People have said to me that the paintings are angry but I don't think they're angry, I'm just expressing the frustrations of someone who lives with dyslexia. Words frustrate me and fascinate me at the same time. I sometimes don't understand the sounds of the letters, what they mean and why they don't do what they are supposed to do. Because of this I like to draw quick and loose as opposed to when I’m designing a building and it needs to be more rigid and consistent. I've also taken from street artists who have to paint fast. I think if you're drawing fast there's an honesty to it because there is no manipulation and overthinking, it's just straight from your head onto the canvas. I love the no phoney approach to that".
Mindset
This spontaneous approach takes away all inhibitions. "I deliberately don’t correct words that have been misspelled and I sometimes break them apart to emphasize what can be going on in my head”. He also splashes and spills paint loosely over the canvas which keeps the honest approach "for a long time I covered up the writing completely, so as to not expose myself too much to the outside world but as I got older I've stopped doing that. I'm happy where my art is, at the moment, and I feel that it's totally me. It's a take it or leave it approach, I have now."
Art vs. Architecture
“Art is a way of expressing myself and it’s a nice break from the normal day-to-day work routine of an architect. The creative process between art and architecture are very different disciplines. With architecture I have specific briefs and goals that I aim to achieve. With art there are no boundaries, I just express what's in my mind at the time that I am working, and in all honesty, I'm trying to get the thoughts out of my mind and on to the canvas. I see it as a healthy process. Work and life can be stressful at times and I find going to my studio and throwing a large piece of canvas on the ground and painting helps me release all those stresses in a creative and positive way”.
Creative Process
“My technique normally involves a free flowing start to each piece as I set out the scene for the broader context of the work, followed by a slower, drawn out finish as I immerse myself into the painting and endeavor to elicit an answer to the conundrums that I face and to dig myself out of the holes that I've created for myself in my mind and subconscious”
Influences
PIGSY is influenced by artists, musicians, writers and other figures in popular culture. He sites being influenced by artists such as Cy Twombly, Purvis Young, Hawkins Bolden, Karel Appel, Jean Michel Basquiat along with enjoying the work of David Lynch, David Byrne and poet Seamus Heaney and writer Hunter S. Thompson. Musical influences include 1980’s old school Hip Hop along with musicians like Talking Heads, Future Islands, Elvis Presley and currently Fontaines D.C. and The Felice Brothers.
Ranelagh Art Studio
For the past 10 years, PIGSY has been working in his Ranelagh studio in his award winning architecturally significant house in Dublin, Ireland. His art studio is at the top of the house on the third floor and is filled with light streaming from four window lights that flood the birch ply wood clad room that has a glass floor (which he covered in a plastic coating to protect it from the paint!). It’s a light and airy space - the perfect place to create art.
PIGSY in Malaga, Spain
As of August 2020, PIGSY is based in Malaga, Spain with full focus on the creation of art. He has taken a sabbatical from his architectural practice and has embarked, with his wife and dog, on an uncharted year in Spain inspired by all of the artists and creatives that have gravitated to this part of the world before him. He is excited about the adventure ahead of him, where he will fully immerse himself as PIGSY - as a full time artist he knows that he is entering in to an immensely creative period of his life!