Ciaran McCoy

Award winning Irish architect Ciaran McCoy uses the knowledge and skill from his architectural background to create stunning, semi-abstract and narrative driven artwork through his alter ego, “Pigsy.” In the beginning of his life, McCoy struggled through his primary and secondary school, a byproduct of his dyslexia and the amount of time and energy that went into afterschool and evening programs that were aimed at helping him find ways around his trouble with reading. His passion for creative expression began while waiting for one of these afterschool programs to begin, when he decided to pass the time before the program by drawing on a blank chalkboard in his classroom.

The looseness and freedom of expression McCoy has come to find in painting provided him a way to vent his frustrations of having dyslexia. The flexibility in medium, style, and narrative meaning of his artistic pieces often reflect his own feelings towards dyslexia, saying that the mistakes he makes in spelling, reading, and interpreting writing finds its way onto the canvas in more ways than one: by letting the paint splash “outside the lines” and his artistic materials coming from his closet, the hardware store, a paint shop, or whatever else he may be feeling in the moment; in other words, McCoy has found ways to accept his dyslexia through his art and the beauty that it creates. His dyslexia has bolstered his career as an artist and architect in ways he has not expected, but in more ways than he could have ever have hoped for. He is now working as an artist full time in Malaga, Spain. Read more about him, his work, and his dyslexia here.