Cool Nissan NISMO GT-R LeMans Racer Print...

This print is available on Easy (a website for "handmade" items) and is signed by the artist, Roger Warrick.  Warrick seems to be a big time endurance racing fan with most of his art centering around tracks and events like Sebring, Indy, LeMans, etc.

He essentially has two styles of art with one being a "serious" realistic depiction of the racing action and the other being a Dave Deal-esqe "car-icature" of various vehicles and their drivers.  This one is his most recent production and depicts the recently introduced Front Wheel Drive Nissan NISMO GT-R LeMans racer that will be contesting various WEC events (including LeMans) this year.  Some of the nice details seen here including the fire breathing exhaust exits on the hood of the vehicle (where they actually ARE located) and the positioning of Godzilla (the GT-Rs nickname) in the front of the vehicle where the engine is placed, are nice touches.  It will look nice in a frame on my wall.

Roger Warrick Etsy Website...

Old School Nissan OffRoad TShirt For $10!!

Or at least the design is old school...

In truth the tshirt was created very recently for the '13 edition of the Mint 400, the largest offroad race in the US.  The designer/artist who made up the shirt is one Rory Ward who is a huge fan of old school offroad racing and competes in the vintage class in NORRA events.  As you can tell by the artwork he is also a big fan of Dave Deal and what I would call a 1960's vibe of vehicle artwork.

Rory Ward did the design work for the original Team Xterra Racing tshirt that I worked up and was selling a few years ago.  I will have to see if I can track down a photo of one and/or the original design artwork which I have framed in my basement.  Rory does excellent work and with this Mint 400 tshirt he has gone back and included a drawing of a classic Nissan Hardbody which was typically run by the Mears boys back in the mid-80s.  Really cool to see an oldschool Nissan on a tshirt like this and for only $10 it would make a great stocking stuffer for any Nissan fan!

Mint 400 Nissan Tshirt...

Rory Ward's Racer's Only website...

Surf Artist Jay Alders

 I was recently introduced to Jay Alders' work while staying at a beach house in North Carolina.  The owners of said house were obviously big surfers with photos of the local surf and beaches as well as surfboards and other "surfer" related items decorating much of the house.

In a couple of rooms however there were prints of various paintings that really stood out to me.  Not only did they reflect the laid back vibe of the locale we were in as well as the surfer dominated culture there but also elicited an emotional response in me.  I found them to be beautiful, powerful and sensual in their colors and curves--a near perfect reflection of what the ocean, beach and waves can be to human beings.

Fortunately each of these prints was nicely notated in a corner with the artist's name, Jay Alders.  The Jay Alders.com website contains a great portal through which you can see his work (in addition to the paintings shown here).  Alders works in a number of mediums--canvas, wood, photography, digital, etc. and he has worked with a number of musical artists as well as surf/ocean/water related non-profits in the past.  Check out his work...if you like the ocean and/or some sweet art to peruse, I think you'll enjoy it.  I'll be getting a print some time to hang in my house myself.
 
  
 

Comic Review: Fall of the House of Usher #1

I'm not a hardcore follower of comics, illustration or popular art so I didn't know Richard Corben from anyone. I was more interested in a comic retelling of Poe's tale.

Richard Corben ends up being a fairly well known (famous?) illustrator known initially for his work in Heavy Metal magazine but working prolifically in many arenas since the 70's.  Turns out his style fits quite well for this story.  His human creations are bulbous and odd.  His backgrounds are detailed and sharp.  His style wouldn't be called realistic but a strange tale such as Fall doesn't necessarily call for pure reality.

The story itself is slightly "adapted" from Poe's version though the basics remain, an old friend asks for a visit to his strange mansion buried deep in the heart of some strange woods.  As they get reacquainted the homeowner becomes increasingly unhinged and his relationship with his sister is odd to say the least.

I'll be interested in seeing the conclusion in issue #2 as issue #1 really just sets the scene while the true craziness and "fall" occur at the very end of the story.  How Corben portrays this ending will be very interesting to see.  I would recommend reading the actual Edgar Allen Poe story in full before reading the comic as it allowed me to understand a lot of the nuances and background that perhaps aren't able to be conveyed in a short form comic like this.  I felt like I enjoyed the comic a lot more becuase I knew the story beforehand.

Its an interesting comic and a solid, short feature crafted by an famous artist based on and even more famous short story.  The comic is produced by Dark Horse and was released on May 15.

Chesley Bonestell

 I first saw his paintings in a book my father has had on his shelf for now over 50 years.  I can't remember which book it was (Conquest of Space or Worlds Beyond I believe) but as a kid these images were likely what sparked my interest in space in general and the instill in me the need for humans to escape our little cradle.  I can still see the faded dust jacket with numerous cracks and tears from frequent reading.

The paintings were and are stunning and stand with anything created in the 20th Century, particularly in terms of influence and wide acclaim.  What I have not known till now is how wide Bonestell's influence was beyond this book of my father's and how often I had viewed his work unknowingly.

Bonestell was a designer on the Chrysler building in NYC, SF's Golden Gate Bridge, worked extensively on the image designs for Citizen Kane (frequently regarded as the #1 film of all time), was the character inspiration for an Ayn Rand character in The Fountainhead, worked as a large scale artist on films such as War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide and was frequently featured in Life and Scientific American magazines.  And I think we can see from the images how much of an influence he was on films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and many others. 

Its the clarity and realism of the work that stuns me to this day with the paintings looking far more like photographs than anything done by a human hand.  His work inspired many such as Carl Sagan and virtually the entire US space program and is still influencing scientists and artists today.  He also depicted things in his paintings really not discussed or known to the general public decades before they became science fact and not fiction such as binary star systems and the early, molten rock and comet ridden beginnings of our own planet.  Not bad for someone born well before man ever took flight.  Some of my favorites of his paintings are included here and there is a bit more extensive article linked below.

Chesley Bonestell article...