Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Old Bike, Vintage Stickers, New Art

My circa 1985 Fuji racing bike, with its circa 1990-ish stickers for ACT-UP, sporting both Silence = Death and Action = Life, outside today with some of new cardboards. I must have plastered five hundred locations with these two stickers back in the day.

Not to be outdone, my lightweight, aluminum Schwinn mountain bike always has a group of Veteran's "Poppies" on its handlebars. This bike was a Thrift store purchase, and came already equipped with an orange Virginia Tech sticker on the frame (infamous college shooting site), along with an ID beginning with BJ. A little Wry with that Irony? 

Never saw a Vet in front of a store that I didn't give them a buck if I had it. Even if I only had one. It's interesting, to me, that you almost never see a veteran of WW2 anymore, and rarely the Korean Conflict. Most seem to be from the Vietnam War. Time is certainly moving on. I feel it rushing by.

The long view of the new cardboards outside today for some fresh air. These are done as far as the first layer goes, so I'm going to put them aside for a couple of weeks to cure totally before the next step. 

16 comments:

  1. Love your bikes, Casey.

    I got rid of mine. It was too scary in the traffic.

    I noticed a case of patent infringement - take it to court?

    http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx358/markin208/Painting.jpg

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  2. i like being scared.

    I never said I was original. Different, old, 'Unique in all the World" but never original, lol.

    never heard of that other artist, but we see the world in similar ways! thanks for that.

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  3. I meant that someone was borrowing your style. You've been doing this for a long time.

    And I would say that you're original - maybe that's because I'm on the outside looking in.

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  4. Changing the subject completely...

    Your new cardboards look great out in the daylight. Dibs on #2 or #5 - I like the more complex checkerboards.

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  5. oh, you've seen nothing yet. they'll all be subdivided many times over. some will end up with a column of stripes only, and other variations of 'weaving' styles.

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  6. Keep us updated - it will be fun to see the progression.

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  7. MY GRAMPS AND MIDDLE BROTHER ARE KOREAN VETS. IN THEIR 80'S. [ARMY] LIFE GOES ON. MY OLDEST BROTHER QUIT HS TO JOIN THE NAVY WW2. AFTER HE DIED ONE OF HIS DAUGHTERS LEARNED HE WAS ELIGIBLE TO GET HIS DIPLOMA. THEY HAD A SPECIAL EVENING WITH THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. PICTURES AND ALL. I WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN THERE. IF MY BROTHER WAS ALIVE HE WOULD HAVE BEEN SO HAPPY. A LITTLE BIT TO LATE.EVERYTHING IS TO LATE. IF I HAD A PICTURE OF HIM I'D EVEN TRY ONE OF THESE QUILT MYSELF BUT I WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO PUT ON IT. MAYBE A PICTURE OF HIS SHIP "THE MISSOURI" A SAILOR UNIFORM. A RIDE AROUND LAWN MOWER. HE ALWAYS LOVED A PERFECT LOOKING LAWN.MAYBE A PICTURE OF PORCH SWING,HE LOVED PUTTING ON THE FAMILY CLAM BAKE AT HIS HOUSE EVERY YEAR.PERFECT BACKYARD FOR THE BAKE. CLAMS COOKED ON THE SECOND STOVE IN THE CELLER. OF COURSE THE MEN ALWAYS GOT THEIR FILL FIRST. IT'S JUST HOW IT WAS AT THEIR HOUSE. NOW THAT I'M THINKING OF IT I DO HAVE A COUPLE OF PICTURES OF HIM JUST BEFORE HE DIED. [CANCER] A REAL FAMILY MAN. TRACTOR TRAILOR DRIVER AND HARD WORKER. LOVED TO TINKER IN THE CELLER FIXING ANYTHING THAT NEEDED FIXING.HE WAS ALWAYS BUYING NEW TOOLS TO PLAY WITH. YUP MAYBE SOMEDAY I'LL TRY SOMETHING.DREAMS I ALWAY DREAM.

    GRANNY

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  8. Casey, during your Act-Up days did you ever meet a guy by the name of Katz, I think his first name was Jeremy or Jason? I worked for his dad, back in the early 90's

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  9. Granny-nice story as usual. you're a painter with words.

    Annie: Names? What are those? Those days are still in the haze.

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  10. Annie,

    There's a "Katz" in the Act-Up Oral History Project, but his father was in the apparel business.

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  11. Talking about Silence = Death, I recommend you read a book called, " The Body Of This Death". It was written by my whacky Japanese history teacher from Binghamton, Dr. Haver. It will gives you a totally different perspective about AIDS. I might warn you that some of his words might not be found in the dictionary!

    http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=2154

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  12. This Katz was in the drapery business, they had kids in NY and in SF. I am thinking the one with Act-Up was in SF.

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  13. CASEY, I REALLY NEEDED THOSE NINE WORDS OF YOURS ABOVE. I'VE BEEN HAVING A PITY PARTY THESE PAST FEW DAYS. EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE WE ALL NEED TO HEAR A KIND WORD LIKE JOB WELL DONE. RIGHT?

    GRANNY

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  14. Thanks for putting your bikes in the pictures Casey. The fuji was the one in the "big wreck" wasn't it? Looks in good shape for that crash you must have had!
    How do you divide your work to make the stripes, etc? Taping? Freehand? Sometime maybe your friend will snap a shot of you painting (or at least your hands if you don't like to be in the picture :) would like to see you in action.
    So excited to see the progression. Thanks for sharing.
    mare
    oh and TG, I agree with Casey! :) Hope you keep sharing.

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  15. i use painters tape for the straight edges. sometimes i just make stripes of regular high-stick tape, and then pull the tape off. it takes up a bit of the paint underneath and creates a 'negative stripe' as opposed to adding more paint for a stripe. it will be time to sand soon, getting back to the base brown cardboard in places, and then start building up again.

    no one is ever around when I'm working on these, but I'll take photos at the end of stages.

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