Magazine Art - Perceptions

One of my paintings, Boys, is displayed in Perceptions, Mt. Hood Community College's literary & art magazine, the 2011 issue. Perceptions is a magazine of the arts which has existed at MHCC since 1969. The magazine is produced by students who register for WR247, The Literary Publication, a three term class.

Perceptions webpage

Magazine Art - CHALLENGER international

One of my paintings, Western Flax Flower, is displayed in the literary magazine CHALLENGER international, Volume 21, Summer 2011.

Challenger website reviews

Art Showing - Jerzy's Wine Bar

Seven of my paintings are on display at Jerzy's Wine Bar in Redmond, WA.

Jerzy’s is located in the heart of downtown Redmond with easy access from either Redmond Way or Cleveland Street. Stop by and enjoy the comfortable atmosphere, the great staff and of course the wonderful tastes.

Jerzy's Wine Bar
16727 Redmond Way
Redmond, WA 98052
(425) 861-5407
Website
Map

Audience Survives Luchador Pile Driver at Houston Art Car Parade

This Luchador Art Car was seen doing "Pile Drives" at the Houston Art Car Parade, and the good news is that no one got hurt.
via

Street Car

Oil on canvas panel, 11" x 14"

JEFFREY CATHERINE JONES (1944-2011)

Jeffrey Catherine Jones struggled with battles that other painters never had to face.  His fragile nervous system supported his great talent the way-- in the words of Bob Dylan-- a mattress balances on a bottle of wine.

As a boy, I loved the beauty and elegance of Jones' work but I didn't understand the true scope of his achievement. It was only after I made contact with him later in life that I began to appreciate the demands that his personal chemistry placed on his courage.

In what should have been his most productive years, Jones was stalked by the Great Sadness.  His goals became more complex:

The goal was to somehow survive until morning while working my way ever upwards toward the coming morning light and the safety of the surface. I moved steadily, avoiding as much as possible, the swaying, reaching dead and the slabs of torn bologna spinning through the air.

Jones responded to his challenges with great valor.  In his life, he created some glorious work at great personal cost and left a wonderful legacy for the rest of us.

Graffiti Fiat Art Car

I found this little Graffiti Fiat beauty the other day, Love it.

ONE LOVELY DRAWING, part 36

I like the combination of power and sensitivity in this lovely drawing by Kent Williams.

His composition is fearless; look at how boldly he plants that figure in the center of the page, perfectly balanced as if by a Zen master.  No need to hedge his bets with wispy lines implying a background.  His primeval "L" shape is a design so basic and timeless it might as well have been etched into a cave wall.

Yet, the strength of his design doesn't undermine the subtlety of his drawing.

Williams' shading starts our eyes at the model's face, but the shading is soon softened by gouache as we travel down her body.  The shading disappears altogether where her sparsely drawn toes form a  peninsula with his signature.

Williams' sensitive line displays the kind of clarity that only comes with genuine knowledge of the human form.

Artists have been drawing the human form since the world was new.  There is certainly nothing shockingly original about this basic pose.  Isn't it marvelous, then, that variations such as this one  continue to delight, inspire and educate us?

General Lee Rally Art Car

Every so often, someone enters a General Lee into one of our events, this was Cima Racing's entry into Home2Rome 2010. We generally see more General Lees in Europe than the US probably because of the politically correct thing that surrounds the Confederate Battle Flag in the US these days. The chances of an Italian throwing a brick through the window of a General Lee in Europe is marginally less than in New York for instance.

This car was originally sourced from a tv props department for a very famous TV programme about cars. I haven't seen the episode so I'm going on witness statements but the car was bought within budget (£150/$275) on the condition that it was made into a General Lee.

What is surprising is that this car was not at all perfect. You'd think that a 15 year old Lexus would be in fairly good condition, but not this car. It had a bad time getting through its MOT (yearly UK safety check), and despite the aerial on the roof, the CB didn't work in the slightest. Car to car communication involved shouting loudly whilst the windows were down (thats if they would go down). It also had other issues so I'm told.

The theme is obviously quite simple but it's important to be accurate.

And I don't mean the 01 or the Battle Flag on the roof, I mean, it needs a Daisy Duke. You see, any old person can paint their Lexus orange, and put a number on the side and put an accurate Confederate Flag on the roof.

But what sets this car out is the Daisy Duke it was sporting.

This ArtCar is for all the Daisy Dukes out there!

By Justin Clements Street Safari
Original posted on Art Car Central 

Inglewood House

Oil on canvas panel, 16" x 20"

Gravity Defying Lego Bike

Mutant Monday is brought to you by Brikapolis with this gravity defying
Lego Art Bike, to go along with these other lego art cars here on Art Car Central.

by Brickapolis

"BACKGROUND" IS ONLY A TEMPORARY CONDITION

Is there such a thing as background?  Or is everything really foreground?

Illustrator Robert Heindel once said about his hero Bernie Fuchs, "Look at the things he does.  Who else would paint a tree with the sun behind it?  I would never attempt it."

But a painting of a tree with the sun behind it is also a painting of the sun with a tree in front of it.  Your eye has no choice but to start with either tree or sun, but truth shimmers back and forth between them.

Winslow Homer understood this well: that the distinction between tree and sun, and between foreground and background, and between me and you, is obliterated in the fullness of time:

Manhattan Beach - Pier & Bar

Both oil on canvas panel,
Pier - 8" x 10" & Sharkey's - 5" x 7"

Petaluma Hills

Oil on canvas panel, 6" x 8"

Pimp My Rocket - Burning Man Mutant Vehicle - For Sale

Are you running behind on creating a mutant vehicle for this years Burning Man event? Not to worry because this little electric pimp my rocket mutant vehicle is ready to go. Its now for sale at a reduced price for only $1,995 on ebay located in Resada, CA

It's a 36 volt, 3 wheeled electric car originally built in the 1950's, rebuilt in 2005 with an EZ-GO motor and rear transfer case. Not a golf cart, but rather a little car with a cab, and lockable trunk. Fiberglass body on a steel frame chasis. New batteries, new shocks (2008) New springs (2010) Completely stripped and repainted (2010) "Playa Ready" meaning it's been to BM five times, as recently as 2010. MODULAR DESIGN: Top Cab can be removed for convertible look. 2 Door mounted wings, 2 rear mounted 'rocket pods' (elaborate light fixtures), top mounted fin/rocket. A perennial favorite on the Playa. *Never been denied a day or night license! Must submit application to BM DMV. OR... Try something new. Your own spin on the vehicle base! Yay! Just have fun with it.

ARTISTS AT WAR, part 3

In September 1940 Hitler began his blitz campaign of dropping incendiary bombs on the major population centers of Britain, hoping to burn the civilians into submission. Night after night for months, London was set aflame. After a particularly vicious bombing run on December 29, Winston Churchill ruefully cabled Franklin Roosevelt, "They burned a large part of the city of London last night."        

Citizens risked their lives to form auxiliary fire brigades in an effort to douse the flames and save as many homes, factories and lives as possible.  A number of the firemen caught in the inferno felt compelled to record their trauma in art.

The painting above is by a fireman whose comrades were rushing with sand buckets to put out an incendiary. The painting below is by fireman / artist Leonard Rosoman who witnessed two firemen buried under a collapsing wall of red hot brick.  One of the two firemen had just relieved Rosoman who had been holding that hose moments before.

These painters had little equipment or resources. Firefighter W. Matvyn Wright painted the following image on the only surface available, a ping pong table top:

These artists clung to art through their desperate ordeal.  Threatened with imminent invasion by the Nazis, watching their precious national heritage turn to ash, art helped them to cope.  For them, art was no cultural luxury.  It was serious business.

Another person who is reputed to understand the seriousness of art is private equity fund manager Stephen Schwarzman, one of Wall street's 25 Most "Serious" Art Collectors.  Schwarzman, a multi-bilionaire with five mansions worth a combined $125 million,  recently spent $3 million on his own birthday party.  He had beautiful models parading around dressed as James Bond girls, and paid singer Rod Stewart to serenade him.

A substantial percentage of Schwarzman's immense wealth came from lobbying for favorable laws and special tax treatment. For example, Schwarzman fought the Sarbanes Oxley laws against corporate misconduct and backed special tax benefits for profits from private equity funds.   Recently, when President Obama questioned whether a person worth $8 billion should continue to have a lower tax rate than the chauffer who drives him around, an outraged Schwarzman complained, "It’s a war, like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.”

So both Schwarzman and the firefighters of the London blitz share a common perspective: they both know the horrors of war with Hitler, and they both seek to find solace through art.   
 
But what else do these two experiences of art have in common?  

I like the paintings by the London firefighters-- they are powerful and sincere and I think that some of them (such as that first painting) are quite good. However, it is highly likely that Schwarzman, who majored in "Intensive Culture" at Yale, has more refined taste than the humble firefighters.  I'm guessing his pictures by Rembrandt and Picasso qualify as superior to the paintings by firemen in the war. After all, a picture should not be downgraded for the loathsomeness of the creature who owns it.

If the firefighters' paintings are more meaningful and urgent and relevant to daily life than Schwarzman's prestigious collection, those qualities are worth taking into consideration. That still doesn't make the firefighters better artists but it reminds us that there is more than one yardstick for measuring art.

Powell Street

Oil on canvas panel, 11" x 14"

How to deal with Crazy Mondays - 9 Wheeled Crazy bike

8 Wheeled Bike - Via

Monday's are known for being a bit crazy especially after a long fun weekend. What better day to deal with crazy Monday's that with this 9 wheeled crazy bike.

Italian Job Police Rally Art Car

Today's delectable car is a lowly Fiat Tipo Polizia cop car look alike.

This car deserves a mention because it really was beautifully executed as a replica, so well done, that every time we saw it on an event our hearts ran cold "uhoh cops". You see we never like meeting local cops on the events, cops mean trouble for the most part. We simply want to pass through a town, not get arrested and locked up, waiting for "Fair Trials Abroad" to come to our rescue.

The team (who built Thunderbird 4 the following year) took a picture of a real Italian Polizia Tipo and copied it absolutely perfectly. Graphics were copied, they even had a blue light on the top (highly illegal), siren, they even dressed up as Italian cops.

If you saw this in the corner of your eye, it really did grab you, in a bad bad way. It was only once you focussed on the two faux Policemen larking around that your heart would drop from it's 300 beats per second and you'd remember "thank god, it's only Team Maestro Masters".

It has to be said that we did get revenge on them - they did not want to be seen one morning when some real Italian cops would be in attendance. Copying foreign cops probably isn't wise, and the Maestro Masters team were bricking it. But we assured them, that nothing untoward would happen to them. In all honesty, we didn't know what would happen to them, we just knew that we were safe.

But after they had spent 3 days scaring the life out of us, we were willing to take the chance they wouldn't be arrested.

In a wonderful twist, the cops actually loved the Tipo, and apologised that literally, 2 months ago they retired their identical Fiat Tipo Polizia car.

This was an unexpected high point, with a significant low point to come.

The car was seized in Rome and dragged to a police station. When the team went to collect the car they were promptly arrested and interrogated for a few hours. Only after chatting up a hot Italian woman, who happened to be a senior detective were they released from custody with no charges.

The car was not released, and we can only think was eventually crushed by the Italian authorities.

Farewell Fiat Tipo Polizia, but you do live on on the internet.

(If you are wondering why we have a picture of a toy car of the original - it's because we couldn't find an original picture of a real Polizia cop car).

By Justin Clements Street Safari
Original posted on Art Car Central