Fred Conlon (1943–2005) was an Irish sculptor. Born in

Killeenduff Killeenduff () is a townland within the boundaries of the civil parish of Easky, County Sligo in Ireland. Located about a mile from the village of Easky, Killeenduff has an area of approximately . The townland is home to the "Split Rock". Loc ...

, Easky, County Sligo, where he was schooled, Conlon won a five-year scholarship to the National College of Art and Design in 1960. Domhnail O'Murchadha, assistant professor of sculpture, encouraged him to complete a sculpture diploma. He then spent a year obtaining an Art Teachers Certificate and became a sculpture associate of the college, where he stayed until 1972 apart from eighteen months as art teacher in Navan Vocational School. In 1972 Conlon returned to

Sligo Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the List of urban areas ...

to teach at the Sligo Vocational School for a year before becoming a lecturer at the Sligo Regional Technical College (now

Sligo Institute of Technology The Institute of Technology, Sligo (ITS; ga, Institiúid Teicneolaíochta, Sligeach) was an institute of technology, located in Sligo, Ireland. In April 2022, it was formally dissolved, and its functions became part of Atlantic Technological U ...

), where he helped to develop a diploma course in art. For the next sixteen years he lectured in sculpture and drawing there until his early retirement 1989. He worked full-time as a professional sculptor until early 2004, when a

brain tumour A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondary ...

( Glioma) was diagnosed. Although some 80% of the tumour was removed, Conlon was physically incapacitated and required extensive care for the remaining year of his life. During that year he worked on a video installation entitled ''Become''. Conlon's works include ''Millennium Garden Sculpture'' at Lucan Community College. He worked in stone, creating large abstract forms. He exhibited with

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, the Royal Hibernian Academy and Sculpture in context. Jack Harte has written an account of Conlon's life, ''Unravelling the Spiral - The Life and Work of Fred Conlon (1943–2005)'' (Scotus Press, Dublin, 2010). Harte and Conlon were born within fifty metres of one another, and ten months apart, in the townland of

. They were cousins and close friends until Conlon's death. In this book Harte warmly tells the remarkable story of Conlon's life and provides a unique insight into his ideas and inspiration. Pursuing the sculptor's fascination with the spiral motif, Harte unravels the Neolithic symbolism of the Spiral and the Newgrange Monument to illustrate the subliminal

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

inspiration underneath Conlon's overtly

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spiritual urges. The book is illustrated with photographs of Conlon's work.

References

Conlon, Fred. 'Biography', ''Fred Conlon Sculptor''
Retrieved 6 July 2005.

Retrieved 6 July 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Conlon, Fred 1943 births 2005 deaths Artists from County Sligo Alumni of the National College of Art and Design 20th-century Irish sculptors Irish male sculptors 20th-century Irish male artists People from Easky