Woman & Shadow

9" x 12", oil, Private collection of Mitch Singer

Hairy Art Cars by Olaf Mooij

This time Olaf Mooij brings us the complete set of cars with wigs and hairy arm pits, this one looks like a sumo wrestler.

Round-About Art Cars Olaf Mooij - Video

Here is another Olaf Mooij creation, this time a multiple car sculpture in the middle of a round about, again have no idea what they are saying but funny none the less.



Olaf Mooij studied at the Akademie van Beeldende Kunsten Rotterdam (Academy of Arts of the City of Rotterdam) between 1977 and 1983. He has been working as an independent artist since his graduation. Today, his workshop is located in Rotterdam’s harbour where he produces work that focuses on changing existing objects into new dimensions.

In 1999, Mooij transformed a car into an art object for the first time. In the “DJ Mobile”, he magically transformed a Ford Sierra into a mobile station where a DJ can perform his records. This piece was nominated for the Rotterdam Design Prize (the most prestigious design award in the Netherlands). The DJ mobile has also appeared in numerous art festivals in the Netherlands. Expanding from this concept, Mooij has developed “hair-cars” series since 1999.
“Every type of car has it’s own personality, it’s own face, lots of people see the lamps as the eyes, the grille as it’s mouth. A car represents certain time spirit and represents a certain group of people. A car is alive! My father always said after a long drive with his car “well done boy” and gave it a friendly punch. This is where the idea of the HAIRCARS found its roots. Imagine there is a car driving in the street with beautiful long blond hair waiving in the wind.”

- Olaf Mooij, ARCO Catalogue, Artfair Madrid Spain, February 2002

More info about Olaf Mooij at www.olafmooij.com.

Brain Art Car by Olaf Mooij - Video

On the previous post I found some dude with the Mobile DJ Art Car, well the dudes name is Olaf Mooij from the Netherlands and he is an amazing art cartist. This particular art car is a plastic brain mounted on the back of a car with movies projected from the inside. I have no idea what i says what its really funny.

Mobile DJ Art Car - Or Speaker Rocket Ship?

Of all the cars I have heard or rather felt this Mobile DJ Art car is by far the most original, clever and cool looking ever. It actually reminds of the car from Men In Black. It has two turn tables with a number of very large speakers built into the car with aerodynamic considerations in mind. I think the dude is Dutch so I am not quite sure what it says on his web site, but here is an English excerpt from his site "The idea for the DJ Mobile is inspired by the song "God is a DJ" [from faithless] and the car of our HOLY-POPE. These two things were mixed together and there it was the DJ Mobile. The DJ Mobile is a functional artwork with a PA System built in"

Chalkboard Art Car - Mobile Expression

This Chalk Board Art car or "Mobile Expression" is a 91 Geo Metro covered in 2 cans of blackboard spray paint created to inspire anyone walking by to a spontaneous drawing expression. Mikey Fletcher is from Roeland Park, Kansas and has inspired many to participate by drawing on his car with chaulk. One day he went in to get some dinner and half an hour later over a hundred people had completely covered his car. That is is wonderful project and you definitely and ambassador of good times.

Wealth TV features Art Car Fest 2007

Smithsonian TV Features Art Car Fest 2006

THE LANGUAGE OF FORMS

I love this picture from an old reference book about birds.



The anonymous artist could have presented the same basic information a thousand different ways, but he chose to emphasize the design. When you look at the shape, the colors, the negative space, you know right away: this was an artist who understood the language of forms.

In previous posts about the enduring importance of design, I have shown pictures from the Museum of Modern Art or recent graphic novels that are not as concerned with design or other aesthetic qualities. For example, one famous graphic novelist wrote, "if one tries to look at my strips as 'good' drawings... they're not, but ... I'm able to write with pictures without worrying about how I'm drawing something."

I always thought it was the job of an artist to be "worrying about how I'm drawing something," but my narrow minded attitude has only provoked scorn from readers who believe that "good," well designed pictures are no longer as important, especially for sequential art. Samples of their feedback:

Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware are geniuses and should not be judged by old fashioned standards for drawing.

The drawings in Panter's comics... are not meant to be studied like... paintings..., they are meant to tell a story.

You are completely on crack. I have never seen such a misguided discussion in my life.... the art world is horrifically driven by vacant aetheticisms...

I think you are mistaking the sequential storytelling of comics with illustration.... If the focus of your blog is ILLUSTRATION ART, perhaps you should stick to that and not try to include Chris Ware in a category he does not belong.

A couple of suggestions for you Dave; grow up & wise up.

Sorry, David, but you have no idea what you're talking about. Go back to reading batman; you're totally out of your depth in trying to understand why Ware is a great artist

These artists make images that could be called bad drawings by someone looking for something pretty, but in actuality have great ideas behind them... Maybe because the drawings are essentially "bad drawings", it is hard to distinguish what is actually good from what is bad.

But good design doesn't limit an artist to pretty or ugly, detailed or simple, realistic or abstract, fast or slow. Any of these approaches can be either well designed or poorly designed. Ever since art began, the challenge for the artist has been to marry content with "good" pictures, not to surrender one for the other.

The map maker who drew this 15th century map of the world could have displayed accurate information without worrying about composition, style or color. Yet, he obviously felt that a visual medium demanded attention to aesthetics as well as content:



The same could be said about this Tibetan image explaining the "wheel of law." The artist could easily have ignored considerations of form and resorted solely to a technical diagram. He did not.



Egyptian wall paintings tell complex religious and historical narratives. Yet, after overcoming dozens of obstacles not faced by artists today, the artist made sure that his images were also beautifully designed, right down to the smallest little figure in the corner:



Artists who can speak the language of forms are sensitive to the balance, the rhythm, the harmony and aesthetic designs of nature, and are capable of employing those magical powers in images. The artist who drew that bird understood he was in the presence of sacred things.

Artists are of course free to grant themselves exemptions from any standard or challenge. There is no law preventing an artist from saying, "I don't care about making good pictures because I have other priorities and I can't handle both at once." But 30,000 years of art history proves that good content is not incompatible with good form. Artists who lack this ability, or who lack the drive to do things with this ability, will always be second rate to me.

Air Elemental

doodle of oodles

Evil Clown

This is probably my fav character i've ever created so far, didnt use reference either, so if anything looks wonky, that's why :P i started this character sometime last year based on a forum weekly activity topic, but never got very far with him back then. I recently found him almost forgotten among my files and thought i'd properly finish him up cos he makes me smile.

Fastest Office Desk Art Car

Most of us who work and have art cars usually can't do both, but why would we want to? Britton Edd China was able to merge his three passions, work art and speed into this really fast work office art car that he drove across Westminister Bridge into the city of London on Nov 9 2006 as part of Guiness World Record Day. The Office is roadworthy desk that can travel up to 87 mph but the question is can he get good Internet connection and can he surf and drive at the same time?

Ford Escort Art Car for Sale

Have always wanted an art car but were to lazy or too busy to make your own? Now is your chance to own a beautiful 1995 Ford Escort, Ex.cond. with a only 132,300 miles in the SF bay Area now on sale on ebay Its covered in buttons, beads, cabochons, an ear ring collection from the 60s, A Levi Jacket and miscellaneous trinkets and rejected art projects.

Yellow Grass

This was a plein aire painting done in Discovery Park, near the Magnolia District in Seattle, WA. The park is large and part of it spans across a plateau overlooking the ocean. This plateau has beautiful wild flowers and yellow grass, which caught my eye.
Private collection of Mitch Singer

8"x10", oil on canvas board

Extremo the Clown and Mirabilis Statuarius Vehiculum art car

Extremo the Clown is Scot Campbell, a graphic artist who once ran for Mayor of Portland. He is also the creator of Mirabilis Statuarius Vehiculum which is latin for extraordinary sculpted vehicle that took about seven years to make and has 318 thousand miles on it. It's adorned with three hundred heads and the big one on the back is a fountain. He says he was the inspiration for the carthedral art car and now I can see why, its an amazing car with amazing detail. Scott is currently working on another car which we hope to feature on Art Car Central as soon as its done.





Photos sent in by Extremo

Machete Betties Roller Derby Art Car

The first and older of the two is my Santa Claus Car. Made back in 2000 with a Geo Metro using a giant Santa Hat made out of wire and foam by my wife at the time , Charlotte. Then covered with over 200 santa figures and Christmas ornaments and lights. The fact that over the years I began to look more and more like Santa himself made the car even more fun.

It is currently retired and I now mainly drive my Machete Bettie Command Car honoring a local Roller Derby team, the Machete Betties, of which I am the Team Chaplain. Painted by the girls, it is also a daily driver. Good luck with this project and Godz bless ya for doing it.

Rev Bryan

China?

 


Lace Fence is a product developed by the Dutch designer house Demakersvan. (And when one is not using it as a political statement, it is adorable)

WILLIAM A. SMITH

During World War II, the illustrator William A. Smith was sent by the OSS to China, where he spent time behind enemy lines working on the propaganda war. It was an eye-opening experience for a boy from Ohio, and he drew everything he saw.



He drew soldiers on a bumpy flight in the back of a C-47 aircraft. He drew Chinese children playing in the street. He drew vanquished japanese prisoners in camps. You can see his thirst for knowledge in these wonderful drawings.

I find it uplifting that, in the midst of war, an artist retained such curiosity about the world around him and such sensitivity for his subjects. There is a lot of humanity in these drawings.

It is especially interesting to contrast Smith's personal drawings with the propaganda drawings he was doing at the same time (caution: some of these are a little raw).









Smith's personal drawings were clearly an educational process. He learned a lot from keeping his eyes open. On the other hand, his propaganda drawings demonstrate none of the same effort. Great art enriches us by exposing us to the complexity and nuance of life, but in times of war complexity and nuance can be a hindrance.

These twin sets of drawings are a good example of why William Butler Yeats said, "We make rhetoric out of arguments with others but we make poetry out of our arguments with ourselves."

17 Reasons To Drive A Wooden Art Car

I got this wooden VW art suggestion from Kelly Lyles the other day so I had to post this. I got carried away and spent a couple of hours looking for more of these wooden wonders. I am sure there are benefits to owning a wooden art car so here we go, my top seventeen reasons to drive a wooden art car.

1) Babe Magnet

2) Great View


3) It floats


4) It floats and its faster

Livio De Marchi from Venice, Italy created these three and two of them float, I wonder why?

5) Giant Door Wedge

Splinter

6) Smaller Door Wedge

Little Splinter
created artist Isaac Cohen who is a regular at the Houston Art Car Parade.

7) Classy Dinner Table

The car is built from scratch from Friend Wood entitled the Tryane II, took almost 2000 hours to create. It weighs in at about 900 pounds & is capable of 100mph. This is much better than any log ride out there! I love it.It took furniture maker Friend Wood, 46 over 2 000 hours to build his three-wheel, tear-drop shaped car. Named 'Tryane II', it was built around a basic mould using a boat-building technique known as 'cold moulding'. Mr Wood (yes, that's his name) then built up layers of African mahogany. The two-seater is an adaption of the classic four-wheeled 1969 Citroen Diane and uses the chassis and 602cc engine from a Citroen 2CV. It weights 900 lbs, is 13 feet 7 inches long, 5 feet four inches wide, and four feet four inches tall. With a top speed of approximately l00 mph, it has a fuel consumption of up to 70 mpg.


8) Zamboni on wheels

This wood car was created as a promotional vehicle made by a furniture company in Japan with a max speed of 80km/h.

9) Better Snow Traction

This Opel car which has been stripped of all the metal on the chassis and been replaced with wooden planks.

10) Stealth WWI Machine


11) Urban Safari Trips


12) Get Away Car


13) Better parallel parking?


14) Makes the rims look really nice


15) Wild Life Preserve


16) Pick up time machine?


17) If life gives you wood, make an underpowered wooden death trap