30 Cars Buried in Cement - Mafia Cubism

I call 30 cars buried in cement a new form of "art" called modern mafia cubism. No questions asked.

via


Ok so I went a little nuts with the entire thing, I kept finding them. why so many?

Bike Fro Art Car

This is what I call a Bike Fro art car, complete set of hair made entirely out of bicycles mounted to the outside of this ford van.

Mt. Diablo, Poppies

Oil on canvas, 24" x 30"

Dazed and Confused with OpticaCARlusion

The Opti-Car-lusion was sent in by Becky Morris aka Queen Becky who recently moved to west Virginia. She has a 97 Mazda Miata painted over with a variety of optical illusions that are to sure to daze and confuse other drivers. I wonder if its a bad idea to be driving around a car like that, just don't tailgate to closely you might end seeing things that are not there.

Coffee a Go Go Art Bike - Smitty's percolating coffee psycho

Smitty's percolating coffee psycho is bike ride that's all about the coffee. There is plenty of space for the coffee pot, the mugs and off course the coffee grinds. You never have to go looking for a coffee shop, because the bike is brewing all the time, now I want coffee, only 12 hours until my next cup.

Donna at 15

Oil on canvas, 30" x 24"

This Side That Side Art Bus

I just got this in tonight and thought it would be a great addition to ACC. Its a 1990 GMC 3300 17 passenger school bus located in Capitan, NM (near Ruidoso). Its owned by Linda & Kurt Howard, owners of Horsemen's Grill & Cabins in Capitan, NM and was painted by This Side That Side, J. Atlasand and completed in only 20 days, December 2009.

The art bus will be used as leisure vehicle for Linda & Kurt and a seasonal shuttle to/from and around the many art communities around Capitan and parts of New Mexico.

VW Wild Boar Fuel Saving Modification

VW has announced that it will begin fuel savings modifications on all VW Golfs using wild boar dummies. Any one interested in this fuel savings upgrade can get it at no cost. Once the car is hits a wild board crossing the street the need for gas will go down to zero, since the car will be totaled, think of the savings. VW is also thinking about sharing this fuel savings technology with other car manufactures.



for the real story go to Jalopnik

WORKING DRAWINGS

Watch the great Dean Cornwell collect the information he will need for a painting.



Cornwell has drawn thousands of hands in thousands of pictures, yet look how hard he still works to get the facts right:



The information in this drawing is different from the type of information that could be collected by a camera. Here is where Cornwell starts to select and digest certain facts to assimiliate them in his own personal style. Here is where he finds the contours of his future design. Here is where he establishes priorities.



Fritz Eichenberg once said, "what makes an artist create in his own particular style is an indefinable gift, almost a state of grace."

Maybe so, but I especially like preliminary sketches where you can see honest artists put that "state of grace" to practical use constructing a picture the way a carpenter might use tools to build a house. I love the candor and unpretentiousness of working drawings. Here is a nice selection by some extremely talented artists:


Frank Frazetta tries out two different positions for the leg of this rider. Yet, his attention always seems to stray back to the same thing...


In the final version of this image, Bernie Fuchs' lines will seem very spontaneus and natural. But here you see him explore, at a slower pace, how the width and variety of lines might work out.


Here, William A. Smith was not content with the break in the crease on that pants leg, so he went back and did it again. Below, we see him going back with white paint to reshape the lights and shadows in a dynamic fight scene.





This is a preliminary study by Oberhardt for an ad for Fatima cigarettes. Despite the briskness of the drawing, he manages to capture a surprising amount of the subtlety of the form. But he is clearly not collecting information the way Cornwell was (note the difference in the treatment of the hand). Instead, Oberhardt's primary interest is in the overall shape of the lights and darks.


Like many artists, Oberhardt apparently continued to work on images in the back of his mind even while he was reading the newspaper.

This concept sketch by Rockwell may be tiny, but he meticulously plans all of the ingredients of a Post cover, including his signature and the trademark Post bars.

I love the vigor of this sketch of Katie Couric by Thomas Fluharty. It may seem as if he drew it at 90 miles an hour, but look at how he slammed on the brakes to capture the information he wanted about those teeth.

Another terrific example from Fluharty, cut and pasted with no pretensions. Look at the bold use of that soft charcoal to take chances with the shape of Obama's cheeks or ears. Yet, observe how he came back with a computer to test color and add such insightful expression to those eyes.

There are many interesting stopping points on the road to a completed picture. In recent posts, we have spent a lot of time discussing critics, curators and gallery owners who project their fanciful notions of what the artist had in mind. As far as I am concerned, the most reliable way to discern the inner thoughts of an artist is to spend some time with the working drawings that led up to the final product.

David Best Car at its Worst - RIP

This Art Car was created by David Best called DC-13 is currently dead and totally destroyed located at the Silo in Houston Texas. I don't know why but it breaks my heart so see this art car in such a sad state. Enough said, what do you think? Via

Mother

Oil on canvas panel, 14" x 11"

The Painting of My Mother,
Eileen Ades Forrest
(Jan. 7th, 1925 - Nov. 20th, 2010)

The first day I learned of my Mother’s serious illness, I happened to be looking at the painting I did of her when the eyes twinkled at me. Perhaps it was an energy that came out of them, as though her spirit was in the painting. It stopped me and I smiled. The next thing: the phone rang; a doctor at the hospital told me of my Mother’s condition: she might not make it. I jumped in my car and drove north a few hours to be at her side. She recovered, but was still in serious condition.

I returned home. The next week, as I walked past her painting, again the eyes twinkled at me. Oh no--I thought, the phone will ring. An hour later, my Father called, “Can you come? She isn’t expected to last more than a few hours.” I came.

I stood next to my Mother’s bed in the hospital holding her right hand. Her eyes were closed, an oxygen mask covered her mouth, she seemed unconscious. I leaned forward and gentle tears rolled down my cheeks as I spoke into her ear “Mom, its Brian. My voice is gone because of a bad cold, but I’m here. I want you to know you communicated to me through the painting I did of you. You were looking right at me Mom, as though you were there with me. Your eyes twinkled Mom.” She rose up in the bed, arching her back, her left arm tried to reach out to respond. She had heard me. “I love you Mom..I love you. Dad and I are going to go home now to rest, but we will be back tomorrow, I love you Mom.” She passed early the next morning at 4:05 am.

I will always treasure the memory of my Mother and my painting of her.
--Brian Forrest

Drala: Art Showing

Eleven of my paintings are on display until the first week of June at the
Drala Studio For Hair
2763 NW 85th St.
Seattle, WA 98117
Tel: 206-299-1797
Map

A HAND, AN EYE AND A PIECE OF CHARCOAL

Last week we enjoyed the work of glitzy art superstar Jeff Koons, who employs a factory of artists to create his supersized art. Koons is famous not for his personal hand or eye, but for his "enigmatic otherness" which conceives wry social statements (which others then execute in the form of giant balloon animals).

This week, for a change of pace, we leave Koons and look instead at a talented artist.

This lovely drawing is by the illustrator William Oberhardt.



Oberhardt did not specialize in wry social statements. He did not write the specifications for teams of workers to produce huge ironic paintings. Instead, he specialized in taking a single piece of charcoal in his own hand and drawing portraits which combined sensitivity with boldness and vitality.



After my last post about Oberhardt, I was fortunate to be contacted by his family. Today's images are from their personal collection.



To get a sense for the strength of this drawing, take a closer look at some of the details:




You can't achieve this kind of power if you stop to draw the eyelashes.

In the next picture, note how Oberhardt's hand floated above the picture, alighting from time to time apply darks for emphasis. These strange jottings are the language of visual abstraction:



It's a language I like.

So much of contemporary art is dependent on concepts and ideas for its validity. Armies of critics, pedants and grad students armed with thesauruses compete to explain the meaning of such art (and thereby demonstrate their own sensitivity). If you linger too long in front of their carnival booth, they will trap you into endless discussions of why an object is different, or more complex, or better than it looks.

I confess I like some of that art, and have even written some of that pedantic persiflage myself. But when I step back, no matter how immense or shiny or expensive it is, art that must be propped up with words seems etiolated in comparison to what an artist can achieve with just a hand, an eye and a piece of charcoal.

The great Walt Whitman put verbal rationalizations in perspective:

I swear I begin to see little or nothing in audible words,
All merges toward the presentation of the unspoken meanings of the earth,
Toward him who sings the songs of the body and of the truths of the earth.

HearseCon 2010 Ad! (A-Team Parody)

Ever owned a Hearse and was rejected from car shows because your ride was way to weird or deadly? Now there is HearseCon 2010 for those of you looking for an alternative event to go to this year. The event will be held June 18th-20th, Englewood Colorado and is described as "Burning Man for People who shower..."

Legendary Scooter Travels Cross Country

originally uploaded by Master Jeffrey.

I was emailed recently about a painted scooter named "Legend" by
Jeffrey Holmes. He painted his 49cc 2006 TnG Venice with stars and stripes last summer and then took it on a 1400 mile cross country trip from from New Orleans to Key West and Back to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

It was a solo trip (no chase vehicle or other participants) and he still
drives her daily and is currently working on a 93 Buick Hearse aka Vodou 1. Cant wait to add that to our collection of Hearses here on art car central. Great work.

Father

Oil on canvas, 14" x 11"

THREE THINGS I LIKE ABOUT JEFF KOONS

Has every bad thing that can possibly be said about the art of Jeff Koons been said already?

It is worth revisiting this question at regular intervals because you don't want to let an opportunity go by. You never know when someone might invent a new word for "stinks."

There are many reasons for disliking Koons' work. My personal favorite is that he steals images from honest, underpaid commercial artists, sprinkles them with an invisible layer of irony and resells them as "fine" art for millions of dollars.

Nevertheless, a person would need a pretty good excuse to expend fresh energy attacking Koons' work. By now most sensible people recognize that Koons' true talent lies only in his ability to mesmerize the tasteless rich. To revisit such well trod criticisms might cause one to be ejected from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Dead Horses.

Well, here at the good ol' Illustration Art blog, we believe in accentuating the positive, so I have attempted to come up with three reasons to like Koons' work:

Reason no. 1: I like his attitude. Koons seems to have genuine fun with what he is doing. He takes explicit photographs of himself having sex with a porn star and shows them off to the world. He spends lavishly on art by artists with more talent (but less marketing skill) than himself. He lives life large, and takes full advantage of his superstar status. I do approve of that.

Cheeky, sold for $4 million

Reason no. 2: He inspires others to new heights of creativity. Koons' work is so bad, his public relations machine is forced to be highly imaginative to persuade people to buy such twaddle. Take for example the following frothy persiflage from Sotheby's shameless Alex Trotter. In order to promote the sale of the painting "Cheeky," Trotter bastes it with irony like a pastry glaze, preparing it for consumption by investment bankers (who only achieved their rank in life by being impervious to genuine irony):

An outstanding example of [Koons'] satirical commentary on late 20th-century society, this work has his traits of technical excellence and common subject matter while invoking lingering questions of irony versus sincerity-- what is the intent of the artist? Is he serious or is there an element of mockery? This oil on canvas work is composed of disconnected images and high definition colors, executed with photorealistic perfection. The random association of food, landscape and sex is a metaphor for the bombardment of stimuli present in modern life, while the size and fragmentation of the images further impedes their comprehension.

Koons insists that there is no irony or agenda beneath the surface of his images-- that is, until someone sues his ass for copyright infringement, at which point he reverses himself and swears under oath that his work was not theft because it was intended as a "parody." See, for example, Rogers v. Koons, 960 F.2d 301 (2d Cir. 1992); See also UFS Inc. v. Koons, 817 F. Supp 370 (S.D.N.Y. 1993); Campbell v. Koons, No. 91 Civ. 6055, 1993 WL 97381 (S.D.N.Y. Apr 1, 1993).

Reason no. 3: Koons' art performs an important social function. A private art market within a free society is one of history's most finely tuned instruments for exposing the morons among us.  This can be handy information to have.  After all, art is broad and subjective; it means different things to different people.  It is rare for the field of art to produce an objective truth.  Koons' art that can serve as a reliable lodestone, providing an unerring compass needle for identifying decadence and bad taste.  The needle is not fooled by commercial success; it is not deceived by Wall Street quants who outsource their taste to consultants. It performs a valuable social function by identifying and weeding out the type of embarrassing art critics who gush about the "enigmatic otherness" of a puppy dog sculpture, telling credulous corporate moguls that if they spend millions on such a sculpture for the lawn of their estate, they will be able to tell reporters (as Mr. Brandt did recently), "my whole philosophy of life revolves around aesthetics." With Koons providing an objective standard, you will always be able to spot the frauds.

The lesson of today's post is quite obvious. You might not think it is possible to find something good to say about Koons, but if you keep a positive mental attitude, you can find some good in everyone.

Scrap Yard

Oil on canvas, 14" x 18"
Inspired from a photo by
Craig Robinson

The Pleasure of Absence

It is the pleasure of imagining a performance - or rather, of imagining a universe. A narrative, an aesthetics, an experience, a unity.
It is the pleasure of imagining a liveness, a directness, a presence.
The pleasure of experiencing the echo, the recording, the extract, the fragment of a copy of a copy. The pleasure Plato was so afraid of.
It is the joy of watching something on a small pixellated video image and imagining it live and juicily 3D.
It is the ecstatic moderato of my computer screen, of yours, which acts out the world that supposedly tastes better off-screen (heck, it tastes). Yet it is not off-screen, not in the performance space, but here, at this very desk, dressed in dark-green boxers, brown socks and a t-shirt, among the hills of papers and books and accompanied by the delicate sound of the washing machine and an occasional sms, that I experience it. The pleasure of absence. The ecstatic moderato.

BYOBW 10th annual Next Week!!!!

via Boing Boing
The 10th Annual BYOBW or Bring your own Big Wheel down hill race is tomorrow at 4pm at 20th & Vermont St., San Francisco, CA. If you are interested you need to sign up BYOBW and a dress up

Easter Bunny Furball Art Car Madness - And More!!

With Easter on its way this weekend, I though it appropriate to explore the world of cute furry bunny art cars from around the world. There are a variety of the Easter Art Car wonders making the rounds this year, hiding eggs and scaring small children. From art cars to motorcycles with men in bunny suites, we have it all, enjoy, and Happy Easter!!!

Furry VW Bunny Art Car


Rex Rabbit Art Car


Pink VW Art Car


Burning Man Bunny Party Float


Burning Man Bunny Slippers

And we digress with a few more bunny's on wheels. This is the more part.