Sunday, 28 February 2016

Saturday, 20 February 2016

Tribute to a 'sound and vision' man

Shortly after I had finished college I was looking for any opportunity to get some art work on walls anywhere. At the time I made the acquaintance of the Manager of a restaurant on Dame st in Dublin. He was an all round decent guy and appreciated art. He gave me permission to hang work for sale in the establishment, which i could change from time to time. He personally bought a few pieces of my work. 

 Signs on as time waits for no man and the restaurant changed hands a new manager was brought in with whom I also negotiated wall space. The relationship was a courteous functional one with no love lost on either side she didn't really know why i wanted to hang pictures in the place at all. 

 Around this time it came to my knowledge that Bowie was due to play in Dublin and was staying in the U2 owned Clarence Hotel. During a conversation with two friends and beer, an Idea struck me. The most recent painting I had hung on the walls of the restaurant was a portrait of the thin white duke himself. In all bravado and naivety I determined to inform Bowie of the paintings whereabouts and existence (the impudence!). Setting pen to paper I wrote a note addressed to Mr Bowie, got on the next bus into town and beat a purposeful path to the Clarence Hotel. the concierge was naturally polite but icy and would neither confirm nor deny if a Mr B was currently shacked up in the Hotel. I politely requested that if a certain Mr B happened to be staying there, could this note make its way to him? the concierge politely accepted the note and grinned. 

 I heard nothing of it and tried my damnedest to think nothing of it for the next few days but secretly hoped against hope that something might come of it. At the end of two weeks of hearing nothing, dejected, I felt it was time to take the painting down and possibly replace it with something, or possibly not. I entered the restaurant, approached sour puss and told her I was taking back the painting. She proceeded to tell me very animatedly " aw jaysus you will never guess who we had in here the other day, only David Bowie's wife Iman we were all soooooo excited it was mad altogether!!!,....oh yea I forgot ...you have a painting here of David Bowie...." 

 from one of a billion Bowie fans I raise my glass to you may you rest in piece..



'Bowie' Palette knife, oil paint on denim (cause it's cheaper than canvas;-)) 
Part of a series the rest of which can be seen by clicking the link below
http://conorcoady.blogspot.de/search/label/Portraiture

Monday, 9 November 2015

Crops


 Four images of crops done for recent work in our class room




                                                 

Monday, 14 September 2015

On your bike


Berlin is a city made to cycle, like many other European cities you can accsess all areas of Berlin on your bike. The majority of streets have spacious cycle lanes and the trains and trams come equiped with carraiges where bikes can be brought on board for a paltry sum.

This, unfortunaley, is logistically impossible to do in Dublin, a city that is served by a large bus network with no capacity for bikes. Dublin has of course lots of other virtues and being one eight the size of Berlin has a centre which can be cycled from one end to the other in fifteen to twenty minutes.

Berlin ist eine Stadt zum Fahrrad fahren. Wie viele andere Europäische Städte kommt man mit Fahrrad überall hin. Der Großteil der Straßen verfügen über geräumige Fahrradwege und die Sbahnen und Straßenbahnen kommen ausgerüstet mit Wagen wo Fahrräder können, für wenig Geld gebracht werden.


Leider ist das in Dublin logistisch unmöglich. Einer Stadt, die von einem großen Bus-Netzwerk mit Platz für Fahrräder serviert wird zu tun. Dublin hat natürlich viele andere Tugenden und als einer acht die Größe Berlin hat ein Zentrum, das von einem Ende zum anderen in fünfzehn bis zwanzig Minuten gefahren werden kann.

Friday, 17 July 2015

Flying Irish man

Frankfurt airport waiting on a plane

On kaiser str in Frankfurt looking toward the main train station

After four hours hanging around on the plane to Dublin