Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Cian Butler 

BA [Hons] Art

Cian Butler is a young artist who uses a focus on paintings to create unique characters. His favoured subjects are that of mythical creatures drawn from Chinese influence. He uses acrylics with gold and silver leaf to elevate the characters that he creates. This allows for the blocks of colour and the strong line work to be much stronger. With strong influences coming from comic-books and graphic novels.

Project Description

My project focuses on the elements and in turn the alchemical elements as seen on the alchemical table. With each piece being representative of a certain element from this table. The characters are however drawn from Chinese mythology with certain characters like Sun-Wukong being drawn from Journey to the West.



Thesis Title: Munch, Bacon, Basquiat and their works

My thesis was focused on how an artists work can be influenced by their environment as well as any significant trauma that they may have experienced in their lives. I chose to focus in three different artist with Edvard Munch, Francis Bacon and Jean-Michel Basquiat being the ones I chose to write about. I also focused on how these three men were all in one way or another reliant on drugs throughout their lives