WEXFORD AND THE WORLD IN TOM’S ART
ART IS A spare-time occupation for Enniscorthy-born graphic designer Tom Doyle, pictured, who has a website and Facebook page called yellowbelly.ie featuring drawings and cartoons inspired by GAA and more recently by American politics.
Living in Kildare and working full-time with a company in Dublin for the past 12 years, the Waterford Institute of Technology graduate is constantly drawing and painting, and he created the website in 2012 as an outlet for his hobby, which has been enhanced by the the use of software packages.
Most of his work has focused on Wexford GAA, which is no surprise given that he is a former hurler and footballer with Oylegate- Glenbrien GAA Club. His first ever drawing on the website was of George O’Connor which sparked a lot of interest at the time and prompted him to continue, and his latest, on St Valentine’s Day, was a love message of sorts to the new senior hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald.
Tom gets a lot of positive feedback not just from fans in Wexford but throughout Ireland.
For a while, he produced popular calendars, mugs posters and T-shirts featuring his drawings, but found that he didn’t really have the time to devote to developing an enterprise of this kind outside of work.
‘It’s more of a hobby although I have a few other projects in mind if I get the time,’ said Tom, who went to school in Enniscorthy CBS.
Recently, Tom’s drawings have reflected his engagement with what is happening on the political scene in America, with his social conscience having been awoken by the election of Donald Trump as US President.
‘It’s the first time that I’ve done anything like this. I was as annoyed as everyone else when he became president,’ he said.