Art All Over | Skulls! | The Art and Fun Of Nan Coffey

Skulls in Progress

Last month while out doing some shopping, I came across some super rad plastic skulls in a department store. There were rows and rows of them staring out at me from across the aisle, all exactly the same and all perfectly lined up and calling my name. I knew as soon as I saw them that they would make perfect canvases for my art. I love the idea of taking objects that are cheaply manufactured in bulk and turning them into unique pieces of elevated art. Just think of it - there are 1,000s and 1,000s of these skulls in the world that all look exactly alike - that is, until I got my hands on a few of them...

Throughout the years of producing art, I have developed a very good understanding of what medium will work with different types of textures and surfaces. It’s a strange talent to develop, but I can touch pretty much any object and know if it will take paint or ink well and what brand and application will work the best. As soon as I picked up the first skull, I could tell that Sharpie pens would work great on these. Sometimes with new objects that I acquire, I will do a tiny test area just to be sure the medium I think will work best actually will work best, but in this case, I just went for it and began to draw all over them. I did not pre-plan any of the art for any of these - as with a lot of things I do, I was able to visualize how each one would look when I finished, so I allowed the images to flow from my mind, through the Sharpie, and onto the skulls. As I worked, each one took on a different theme from Tiki to Voodoo to David Bowie to (of course) The Clash.

Bone Daddy Skull
Tiki Bone Daddy Themed Original Skull
The Clash Skull