100 Foot Fire Breathing Mutant Limo Ride - Draka the Dragon

Draka the Dragon Head/Photo by Lisa Nigro

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Draka the Dragon Panoramic/Photo Lisa Nigro

Draka the Dragon is a 112-ft long, mutant vehicle created by sculptor Lisa Nigro. This is a fire breathing mobile/kinetic sculpture that is built on a truck along with three trailers for the rest of the body. It was originally created back in 2000 at Burning Man in Black Rock Desert, NV, made up mainly of recycles materials and capable of blowing a 50-ft burst of flame. Inside there is a bar, elegant decor, room for music and comfortable seating for approximately 50 -75 people. Sounds like a great limo rental ride for prom night. Lisa was inspired by the book Wicked - The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire, and his description of a Dragon Clock Tower that roamed from village to village displaying twisted puppet theatre. By the way if you have any video footage of Draka the Dragon in action, please email it to Lisa, she might be featured on Discovery Channel and she wants live footage to be included in the special.

Scraptastic Art Cars Made in Junkyard - Very Cool Video

Here is a great video of a post I did some time ago about Mel and his Atomic Ride who turns scrap cars into what I call >Scaptastic" Works of Art. A video just came out that is a must see, produced by Channel 3 in Arizona, link.

Atomic Ride Art Car

5 reasons to love edible cars

The reason I love photoshop so much is because in that world anything is possible including these incredible even hideous photoshop edible art cars brought to you by Worth1000.com  Photoshop contest. The people that created these art cars did a fantastic job and are worth mentioning here. Here are my top 5 reasons to love art car meals on wheels.

1. VW Chicken Car.  

You can use all the extra chicken grease down in the pan to power your car for year.

2. VW Watermelon Car

Refreshing and keeps you cool in the summer time.

3. Burger Cat 

You never go hungry on a long day on the job.

4. Pizza Bike

Because regular bike rims are way to boring.

5. Lemon Car

If life handed you a lemon, make lemonade.

AUDUBON AND THE VEILED LADY

John Audubon (1785 - 1851) lived in the wilderness during the early years of the United States. He camped and hunted along the frontier as he studied birds for his illustrated masterpiece, The Birds of America. He kept a remarkable journal of his adventures along the Mississippi and down the Ohio River to western Kentucky.





After a year traveling along the Ohio river, Audubon came to New Orleans in 1821 and paused there to earn money teaching art.





One evening Audubon was approached on the street by a woman wearing a veil that hid her face. He wrote: "[She] addressed me quickly ... 'Pray sir... you are he that draws likenesses in black chalk so remarkably strong?'" When Audubon said yes, she replied that she had a task for him. He began to walk alongside her, but the woman became alarmed, saying "Do not follow me now." She wrote down her address and instructed him to wait 30 minutes before arriving. Audubon wrote:

I arrived and as I walked upstairs I saw her apparently waiting. "I am glad you have come, walk in quickly." My feeling became so agitated that I trembled like a leaf. This she perceived, shut the door with a double lock and throwing back her veil shewed me one of the most beautiful faces I ever saw.....

"Your name is Audubon?"

"Yes madam."

"Set down and be easy....I will not hurt you."

I felt such a blush and deathness through me that I could not answer...

"Will you keep my name, if you discover it, and my residence a secret?"

"If you require it."

"I do. You must promise that to me, keep it forever sacred....Have you ever drawn a full figure?"

"Yes."

"Naked?"

Had I been shot with a 48-pounder through the heart my articulating powers could not have been more suddenly stopped.... She raised, walked the room a few times and sitting again said, "I want you to draw my likeness and the whole of my form naked.... The drawing will be completed in this room...."

She drew the curtains and I heard her undress.... I eyed her, but dropped my black lead pencil....

Thus began what John Updike called "the first known nude American portrait done from life." Audubon was amazed that the veiled woman seemed "not at all afraid to disclose to my eyes her sacred beauties." Such a brazen act was unthinkable in the America of the 1820s and Audubon had to struggle to apply himself to his work. He made clumsy mistakes but she smiled and favored him with patience and eventually the picture was completed: "She gazed at [my drawing] for some moments and assured me her wish was at last gratified...."

The veiled lady and her nude portrait are lost to history. She swore him to secrecy, paid him and sent him on his way. Audubon tried to return several times to see her, but servants always told him she wasn't home.

In addition to being a cool story, the psychodrama that took place between artist and model in that candle-lit parlour long ago reminds us how much of the picture-making process is psychological.

Audubon bravely faced death in the wilderness, yet he "trembled like a leaf" at the astonishing sight of the woman unveiled before him. He could draw under the harshest physical conditions, but in the comfort of civilization, emotion and adrenalin clouded his senses and confused his fingers. He was skilled at rendering the shapes of nature, but when he tried to transfer those skills from drawing the curve of a wing to drawing the shapes of a woman, he became flustered. Clearly, all geometric shapes are not equal.

The veiled lady was of course an active partner in the psychological exchange. Audubon was bold when he left civilization behind for uncharted territory, but she was equally bold when she defied society's rules of decency to do something so unforgivable. Audubon's bird subjects came without psychological baggage. This meant they were not hindered by human feelings of guilt or shame, but at the same time they weren't motivated by the human desire to be seen-- to be known completely through the eyes and neurons of another.

So much of this blog is dedicated to the physical mark left by the point of a pencil on the surface of the paper-- and there is certainly a lifetime's worth of discussion to be found in such marks. But every once in a while it makes sense to step back and acknowledge the psychology of art which, like undetectable dark matter in the universe, accounts for far more of the total weight of art than the physical object.

Car in cement block found swimming the fishes

Some people freeze their credit cards in ice blocks to slow down their use, and now the latest craze is to encase your car in a block of cement to help you use less gas. That's one way to save the planet, one cement car block at a time. It was probably done by one of them environ"mental" mafia groups.

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Alien Ship Invades Bondi Beach Australia

This Alien Ship art car was spotted on Bondi Beach Australia. We know very little about whether or not this a "Real" alien invasion down under. By the looks of it there should be alien abduction stories coming any day now. Cheers.

Horn

Oil on canvas panel, 28" x 22"