by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Rory Coyne finished three large, bizarre oil paintings for his upcoming show.
"I try to do at least six pieces for a show," said Coyne, a UNM graduate student studying art. "But the work suffers, so I wanted to focus more on quality than quantity. I focused on three major pieces that are large enough to stand on their own on
each wall."
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Coyne was born and raised in Groningen, Holland. He moved to upstate New York, near Rochester, where he graduated in fine arts from State University of New York-Fredonia. He came to UNM in 2004.
"UNM was one of the few programs I applied to that accepted me," he said. "So I packed my car and went. It's a nice change from what I'm used to."
The three allegorical paintings measure at least 6 feet in height and length. They combine images of people and
animals.
One, called "Another (Conversation)," is of a naked man from the torso up leaning back as a pink rabbit head morphs out of his chest to look up at him.
Coyne started using the rabbit as a symbol of the nostalgia of broken relationships when he moved to Albuquerque.
"But it also has to do with the curious mythologies around here," he said. "The Woodland Native Americans had the rabbit trickster, the trickster figure."
He said the painting has to do with tricking oneself.
"Whether it's trickery or deceit, we find a way to get what we want," Coyne said. "If we lie to other people, if we lie to ourselves, it's a way to try to
progress through different situations or trying to get the better end of things. It's like Rollo May's idea of the demonic. It could be self-destructive, but it can also be good."
May was an existentialist psychologist who said demons are the emotions or feelings that can take over a person's self.
"It has to do with both the forces that can be destructive and self-improving," Coyne said. "Always trying to improve, but it can overtake you, as well."
The second painting, "Tricky Po Pables," depicts a man with a gigantic raven wing.
"Po Pables is a character I came up with years ago, kind of like an ambiguous self-portrait. This helmeted figure, Mr. Po Pables, has the raven wing, and he's standing in front of a twin of himself, covering it up," he said. "So it's tricking itself,
blinding itself."
The last painting, "35 Coocooroocoo," is a pigeon with a human face, modeled after a female friend. He got the idea from the Sporty Thievz song "No Pigeons," which was recorded in response to TLC's "No Scrubs."
"That's where people who are vain are called pigeons," Coyne said. "There's an inside joke between her and I. It has to do with vanity. Everybody's somewhat vain; we are kind of narcissistic. We do things to present
ourselves."
The neutral-colored pigeon has bright red-orange feet that look a bit like carrots.
"That's because she's from Boston - the whole Red Sox thing," he said. "The bright red color of the claws came from that. Anybody from Boston is pretty much a Red Sox fan."
Rory Coyne's
Senior Thesis
Yale Art Center
1001 Yale Blvd. S.E.
Opening Friday
Through Mar. 23
6-9 p.m.
