"Hung Out To Dry" Catchup - Eamon Coghlan
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
HUNG OUT TO DRY CATCH UP - EAMONN COGHLAN
Today we'll be catching up with our budding Monet, Eamon Coghlan and his mentor Shane Sutton to find out how Eamon has been getting along this week with his telethon art challenge.
About "Hung Out To Dry"
We teamed 3 celebrities with 3 successful Irish artists. Our celebrities are Eamonn Coghlan, Glenda Gilsen and Shalini Singha. Our artists are Shane Sutton, Philip French and Jim Fitzpatrick. We have set them a task of producing a work of art that will be auctioned for charity on Telethon night 26th October!
The Celebrity
EAMONN COGHLAN
Eamonn was known as the "Chairman of the Boards" for his unprecedented successes on the American indoor athletics circuit.He broke the world record for the indoor mile on three occasions and held this record for 18 years from 1979 - 1997. In 1983 he became the first person to run under 3 min 50 sec for the mile with a time of 3:49.78.
Also, in 1983 he became Ireland's first World Athletics Champion when he won the gold medal for the 5,000m in Helsinki. He won the prestigious Wanamaker Mile at Madison Square Garden in New York an unprecedented seven times.Eamonn is a three time Olympian and finished 4th twice, the 1500m in Montreal 1976 and the 5000m in Moscow 1980. He graduated from Villanova University, Pennsylvania, USA in 1976 with a Batchelor of Science degree in Marketing and Communications.
Eamonn's last race ever will arguable go down as one of his most historic. On February 20th 1994, he became the first and only athlete over 40 years old to run under 4 minutes for the mile in a time of 3:58.17 in Harvard University, Boston. He is married to Yvonne and they have four children - Suzanne, Eamonn Jr, Michael and John.
Eamonn is.
9 times Irish Champion - 800m, 1500m, 5000m
10 times U.S.A. Champion - 1500m, mile, 3 miles
3 times British AAA Champion 1500m, 5000m
4 times U.S. NCAA Champion - 1500m, mile
8 times IC4's Champion
3 times World indoor mile record - 3:52.6 - 1979; 3:50.6 - 1981; 3:49.78 - 1983
11 times Penn Relays Champion (9 relays, 2 individuals)
World Record 2000m - 4:54.07 - 1987
European Indoor Champion 1500m - 1979
European Silver Medallist 1500m - 1978
World Cup Champion 5000m - 1981
World Champion 5000m - 1983
7 Time Wannamaker Mile MSG
World Record Masters Mile 3:58.17
Ran 75 sub-4min miles
The Mentor Artist
SHANE SUTTON
Self-taught artist, Shane Sutton was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1971.He lives and works in Dublin. His influences span all sorts of media including, illustration, computer-aided design, graphic design and video editing.
His primary focus remains on painting, particularly in oils. His style swings between realistic, illustrative, graphic and abstract much of his work stems from his observations and experiences of urban life in different cities around the world. Much of his work has a photo-real element to it, motivated by the challenge of recreating his own perception of reality with individual styles and ideas. Thus his work that falls into this category is not strictly photo-realistic but more a stylized version of that effect. Loosely sketched paint is layered up to a detailed working of the subject, this work strives towards precision, requiring meticulous, careful and methodical painting.
His Citiscapes are more abstract, characterized by vibrant colors, bold, graphic imagery, some of it has a hectic, loose, rushed style reflecting city life. He sketches with oils and scrapes paint over the canvas for an abstract view of the city skyline. Shane also likes to play with the style of his work as with his loosely-painted cow herd pictures. The structure and way these paintings are made are far more curious to him than the subject. With these he tends to play with the paint and work the picture until he is happy with what he sees. He never knows what it will be until then. Unlike his structured work, which has a definite start, middle and end.
Shane is also a filmmaker- he made a feature documentary called Fight or Flight When he's not painting or creating his own or commissioned work, Shane teaches art through new media to a young group in Ballyfermot, Dublin. The course works with youth groups in and around the city centre. It aims to teach art through new media. The first phase ran from January to June 2005. Phase two continues to date. Shane still works closely with the BASE in Ballfermot and other associated community groups.