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tomcoyle.art
tomcoyle.art
hello
my name is tom coyle
i decorate old boards and other substrates that appeal to me. the result isn't for everyone, but what is? to me, these are exactly what paintings should look like, period.
i'm inspired by scratchiness, imprecision, and rot. my pictures look like something left outside and kicked around. they work best for people inspired by wabi-sabi, iconoclasm, and dark humor.
most images here are cropped. all measurements are in inches and accurate within half an inch. website formatting makes some pictures look bigger or smaller (relative to one another) than they really are. i tweak things continuously, so the images aren't all true -- more or less they are, but not entirely.
i use acrylic paint, oil pastels, pencils, pens, markers, tape, tempera, glue, house paint, binding media, and fixatives.
pardon the glare on some of the photos.
email if you have questions.
statue of the man who made the statue of the horse
96 x 48 on hardboard
email if you have any questions.
biplane
24 x 36 x 1.5 on canvas
this was a canvas art photograph i bought at a thrift store. once home, i covered that shit in paint forthwith and then buried it in at least six inches of spray-foam insulation. then i outlined the central figure, and cut the shape out of the foam with a paring knife. (in the end, i scraped most of the foam off, leaving a nice bumpiness, but my method was overkill.) for some reason all that took like a year.
email if you have any questions.
gothic
22 x 23 x 0.25 on plywood
that's not glare on the pic. it just kind of shimmers.
email if you have questions.
emin
20 x 30 on paper
this old thing's tempera/water on crackly old paper, and was painted in the mid-1980s. (most other stuff here is from the last year or two.)
*sold*
tetris
50.5 x 49 x 0.5 on corrogated cardboard
inspired by the computer game and the jazz musician moondog.
email if you have questions.
rats
22.75 x 14 x 0.5 on wood
it's on part of a yard-sale haul: an old cradle. not sure if for a baby or a doll -- too small for one and too big for the other, if you know what i mean.
email if you have questions.
scribble
24 x 36 x 1 on canvas
an example of constructive vandalism.
email if you have questions.
proposal for a book jacket
7 x 13 x 1 on wood (irregular)
oddly, they went in another direction.
email if you have questions.
gears
44 x 30 on unstretched canvas
*sold*
murnau
25.25 x 30 x 1 (irregular) on wood
murnau, the village south of munich, not the old film director. st. george, the dragon slayer, is its patron. the place has a myth from ancient times involving a creature said to have inhabited a nearby lake. plus kandinsky.
email if you have questions.
white fez
22 x 25 x 0.50 on plywood
this almost square painting was the top of the crate my washing machine arrived in. thematically, it's mate to another one called red turban (which in fact was painted on the bottom of the same crate). the thing with the tentacles back there is supposed to be pulcinella, a stock character from italian theater (i'm told) -- which doesn't normally have tentacles (i'm also told). anyway, the foreground character is just a shape really, though it also reminds me of this internet cat.
email if you have questions.
tergesteo
24 x 18 x 1 on canvas
this painting got slashed in a passion. for real -- and not even by me.
email if you have questions.
arches
23 x 19 x 0.75 on pressboard
again with the minoans or something.
email if you have any of your usual stupid questions.
i'll show you ugly
24 x 24x 0.25 on metal
an homage to subjectivity. and kraftwerk.
email if you have questions.
believe it or not!
17 x 43 x 1.75 on wood
used to be a door on my kitchen cabinets, probably from the 1920s. anyway, when i was young i really liked these little believe it or not paperbacks we had around, and maybe it was comic strip, like in the newspaper, but we didn't always get the newspaper.
email if you have questions.
red turban
22 x 25 x 0.50 on wood
this one stems from a conversation about stock characters in italian comedy (about which i know nothing, so i was all ears). that's supposed to be arlecchino (sp?) in the back, whose basic disposition i'm told i got wrong -- which makes sense because i was guessing. better luck next time, right? anyway, i'm more interested in our man in the foreground.
email if you have questions.
bubblegum
24 x 24 x 1
(but it's an octogon, obv.)
on wood
i want to revisit this one. or maybe i don't.
email if you have questions.
detention
27.5 x 31.5 x 1
email if you have questions.
bora scura
24 x 24 x 0.25 on hardboard
a was in place one time where the wind would start up out of nowhere and freeze shit immediately.
email if you have questions.
aggressive dog
16 x 13 x 0.75 (irregular) on cardboard, framed
*sold*
snake lady
20.75 x 33.5 x 0.25 on tile board
about 80% of the snake is a big swirl of adhesive on the back of some ripped-out tile board i bought in a thrift shop. it depicts a late victorian person, and there's a cork in it.
email if you have questions.
sickle
6 x 12 x 1 (irregular) on wood
this little guy is on a small plank that tapers at the bottom.
email if you have questions.
gun
18.25 x 25 x 0.50 on wood
she reminds me of one of those jowl-flapping lizards.
*sold*
design for a pirate flag
29 x 17 x 0.50 on some old board
everyone should have a pirate flag.
email if you have questions.
capodistria
15.25 x 16.25 x 0.50
another place with hard winds.
email if you have questions.
plague dr
30 x 34 x 0.5 on plywood and the board is a bit askew
who doesn't enjoy the sight of an old leech?
email if you have questions.
fool's gold leaf
24 x 36 x 2 on canvas
email if you have questions.
ignore them
34 x 21 x 1 on wood
no one else can see them anyway.
email if you have questions.
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vorsicht/3am
28 x 24 x 2 on glass
two-sided painting on glass covered in packing tape and smacked with a hammer.
*sold*
minoan
40 x 20 x 0.25
inspired by bronze age art.
email if you have questions.
boxer
10 x 16 x 1 on canvas
based on a famous figure from the indus valley civilization. the androgynous original is often called "dancer," or "dancing girl." some say it depicts a particular goddess with (notional) ties to the (much later) hindu pantheon. my version looks more like a fighter.
*sold*
stucco (from the vault)
22.5 x 40 x 0.25 on masonite
*sold*
norman
18 x 54 x 1 on wood
email if you have questions.
savonarola
30.5 x 32 x 0.50
shitshow monk from florence.
email if you have questions.
frog
42 x 16 x 0.25 on wood
*sold*
black dot
19 x 35 x 0.50 on strand board (irregular)
email if you have questions.
cobra
47.5 x 31 x o.25 on wood
red cobra and blue octopus are friends who enjoy visiting.
email if you have questions.
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