MId-Summer Garden, 2008

Walking around the garden this morning, checking out what's in bloom, and what is still to come, I started thinking about whether or not the Thistles should really be where they are planted. I'm fascinated by their growth patterns, whirling and swirling leaves as they grow taller and taller, and I'm anticipating their pink flowers, but at this point, they're not terribly attractive plants from a distance. Of course their multitude of REALLY prickly thorns makes me hesitant to move them right now, lol. I had to go back into my digital archives to remind myself why I grow them at all, and I found this photo from 2008. That's a HUGE Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, and I instantly remembered the week two years ago that this visitor hung out in my yard. S/he was interested in ONLY the Thistles, and that week I spent at least an hour a day watching this beautiful creature fly to each and every flower on each and every Thistle plant and drink in the nectar. It was exhilarating in a way, to welcome a beautiful creature like this into my yard—and I remembered THAT is the reason I grow Thistles. 

Perusing the 2008 garden archive, I found this closeup of one of my Tiger lilies. With their "Curly-Q" spotted petals and distinctive stamens with large anthers and filaments, Tiger lilies are one of the more exotic New England perennials—in my humble opinions of course! I can't wait for this year's crop to bloom, although I enjoy watching them grow and mature on a daily basis. They are going to look even better when silhouetted against the newly-painted salmon clapboards.

"How do you say, DeeGorgeous?"

My friend and neighbor, June, recently came back from France and brought me these gaily colored French cookies, Macarons. I loved the colors and presentation so I scanned them, lol. I have a tendency to save everything anyone gives me, quelle surprise, but I really wanted to eat these cute confections and decided a scan would be a better way to save and remember them. I can report that as soon as the scan was done, I promptly ate two. To paraphrase Lady Miss Kier of DeeLite once again, "How do you say, Deelicous?" Click on the image to see them in all of their crumbly cookie goodness.

For Martha Stewart's Parisian Macaron recipe, click here.

I See Your True Colors, Shining Through

Orange and yellow day lilies complement the new salmon and cream house paint quite well. They also contrast well with the bluish-gray hand-cut 200+ year old granite foundation stones on this oldest part of the house. You know the drill—click on each image to enlarge.

I love synchronicity! I began writing this post a little after midnight. After deciding to post garden pics today, Cyndi Lauper's True Colors came to mind for the title. As I sit here typing, Cyndi Lauper just began singing on David Letterman. I had no idea she was a guest on his show tonight! I believe that there is no such thing as a coincidence if you dig deep enough, so enjoy these Foxgloves! I was going to write something about the true nature of these beauties—Foxgloves are highly poisonous to animals and people as well as stunning to look at, but I think I'll just show their true colors instead. Make sure to click on this image to see their intricate details.

 

Ever feel like a magenta bloom in a sea of white flowers? A recent gift from Mary, the red flower is a perennial I've never heard of which is supposed to bloom like an annual—all summer. She's a bit doubtful of the claim, and I'm hoping it's true. The white flowers are Feverfew, a perennial that has been grown in English cottage gardens for centuries. Just touching the foliage sets off an amazing herbaceous aromatic scent.

The white and green variegated leaves of my ornamental Ribbon Grass gives rise to these wispy wheat-like seed stalks close to 5-6 feet tall if planted in full sun. This grass dates back to the early 1930s, when my grandmother introduced it to her gardens. She was a founding member of one of the first garden clubs in the state, the Leete's Island Garden Club, and helped naturalize ornamental grasses and bamboos on the shoreline. Many of my perennials are old-stock from her home and my late mother's home.

I've posted photos of my 'giant' Tiger lilies before. Most of my Tigers are the normal 3-4 feet in height, and at this time of the season are setting their normal 4-5 buds. Five of my Tigers are already close to 6 feet tall and this one shown has 15 tiny buds emerging from the spiral top leaves. The white cotton-candy type fluff is the 'glue' that holds the leaves together tightly until they're ready to unfurl and allow the buds to mature. I had to hold the camera over my head and shoot downwards to capture this view. These lilies are in their third year in this location, around the ancient decaying tree trunk that is the central focal point of this garden, and I can only surmise that the rich mulch-like material from this once-huge tree is the motivating force behind (underneath?) these special plants. Click to enlarge and see the little guest resting on a leaf. They're so much cuter when they're not inside my house, lol.

Early Chops Stand the Test of Time

One of my earliest chops, the Bentley Blue Train Coupe. I started editing photographs to create my own cars close to five years ago. I first read about 'chopping' while I was a member of the Autoweek Combustion Chamber, an out-of-control chaotic mess of an internet forum, lol. I had worked in Photoshop for years beforehand, for my day job to color correct photographs, add shadows to layouts etc, but had never thought about actually creating my own type of cars with the program. So for that, I'll be forever indebted to that rag-tag group of idiots, and I call them that with the utmost respect, lol.

This Blue Train Coupe is based on the Arnage sedan, and along with it's stablemate, the Excellence Saloon, would have been the flagship of the line. "Blue Train" was, of course, the nickname of the Bentley that famously raced a train from London to Paris in 1930 and driven by Bentley works driver, Woolf Barnato. I took the name Excellence from the historic French luxury car, Facel-Vega's flagship sedan, the Excellence. That early 1960s car was based on the chassis of the used the engines from the Chrysler Imperial, but used a stretched (by 20 inches) HK-500 chassis (not necessarily a great idea with the car's pillarless construction and suicide doors). I thought it was fitting for the top-of-the-line Bentley as well. I scanned one of my late grandmother's bracelets for its layout, as I've done for some of the books I've designed. For the wiki entry of the famous historic race, click here,

Click on each image to enlarge.

U P D A T E — I mentioned above that the Facel Vega Excellence used the Chrysler Imperial's chassis. While it's true it used Chrysler engines, the chassis was the company's own design. The large luxury car used a modified platform from its sportscar stablemate, the HK-500, stretched an additional 20 inches. A former Autoweek Combustion Chamber participant, Paul, corrected me, and after additional research  I confirmed my mistake. I also confirmed the fact that the Excellence used its own platform from my friend Nigel in the UK, a writer for several classic car magazines. A HUGE thank you to Paul and Nigel for this! Here is a bit more about this gorgeous French sedan, which if I could make it happen, would be in my driveway this morning. Additional Excellence info here.

$1.19 Car of the Week #3-the DeLorean!

Having just mentioned the DeLorean in the post below, it's a good time to show the latest in my $1.19 Car of the Week. My local grocery store seems to price all the 'small cars' the same, whether they're Hot Wheels, Matchbox or an 'unnamed' brand. The odd thing about this DeLorean is the gold color finish instead of the expected silver-gray. The head- and taillights are individually painted, a requisite for me, even at this  admittedly cheap price-point, lol. It just makes the cars seem so much more realistic to me The taillights are actually the correct scale eggcrate pattern too.

Future Cars of the Past

Drawing done in 1977—Delgiata GT/2, a stainless steel sportscar three years before the DeLorean was introduced. Delgiata is the name of the mythical auto company I came up with when I was around 10 years old. It's a total coincidence that both of these stainless steel sportscars start with D-E-L, but it's pretty cool, right? This sportscar was drawn during my sophomore year at Vassar. Click on each image to enlarge.

Drawing dated 1988 of a Packard-inspired Delgiata Caribbean in the pastel colors from the fifties—perfect for this fanciful luxury sport coupe. Using colored-pencils and markers I sketched this on a slow day while I was in my New York office overlooking the Forbes Building's roof. There was a reception on the roof that day with Liz Taylor in attendance. I picked up on her glam vibe for this Caribbean.

Drawing done in 1992 of a future BMW 2 series, the 235iX—a subcompact all-wheel drive Bimmer way before they were thinking of building one. Of course they have the 1 series now as well as the Mini brand.

The Cadillac of Chops

I made this XTS chop from the mighty Sixteen concept of 2003. While I was totally wrong about the direction of the actual XTS concept shown this year, reports out of GM yesterday say that Cadillac will indeed introduce a rear-wheel drive flagship in the next few years. While directly going against Cadillac's "Art and Science" edginess, I really like the soft curves of the Sixteen, and of my own XTS. As with all of my images on this blog, click on each photo to enlarge and see in greater detail.

Crossovers and SUVs these days are only available in 4 door versions. My friend Barry from Michigan likes to have large doors on his cars to accommodate his 6'5" frame, and I made this 2 door SRX Grosse Pointe edition for him. 

Now that the XLR convertible has been discontinued, there is zero chance of this sport sedan version from ever seeing the light of day—as if there was ever a chance anyway, lol.  I was quite surprised at how much I liked this car when I got done with it. I actually like the look of it more than the original tin-top convertible.

This is my version of what a personal sports coupe from Cadillac may have looked like in 1959-the original XLR? I lengthened the hood, shortened the rear deck. I cut down the fins in height, but extended the 'rocket tubes' of the taillights. I also opened up the rear wheel wells and added some well-positioned duct tape to hold on the trim that has loosened up over 51 years...

Ah, the Presidential Limousine! While somewhat resembling a current Cadillac motorcar, the President's limo is actually much more closely related to the separate body-on-frame Escalade SUV. The car is more than 6 feet tall, and estimates range from 10,000-15,000lbs in overall weight. The tires alone are close to 3 feet high. I think it's WAY too truck in appearance, ungainly in fact. The main point of this exercise was to see if I could possibly bring back some glamour to the limousine. I added some classic Cadillac limousine touches from the past, such as rear fender skirts and more private rear windows. I doubled the size of the rear taillights, to give it more of an old-world Caddy look, and also added the brushed aluminum trim on the trunklid, removing the license plate cove. Does the President's car really need a license plate, lol?

Lincolns for Today and Tomorrow (and a short treatise on my obsession with typography)

Detail of a 'kinetic design' Lincoln Town Car. This car was designed a few years ago. This rendering was to simulate the car at the clay model stage, ready for review. I'm already a bit tired of 'kinetic design,' lol. This could have been cutting edge for the marque 3 years ago. Click on each photo to enlarge and see in detail.

Mid-size AWD Lincoln MKE would replace Fusion-based MKZ.

All new, and I mean it, AWD compact Lincoln CrossStar 5 door hatch. The two rear doors would be 'access hatches' and would enlarge the opening to the rear seat, but only after the front doors were opened. They would be electronically opened activated by the keyfob, as would the rear hatch. No matter what the size of future Lincolns, they would be FILLED with electronics, full connectivity and luxurious materials.

 A new Lincoln Mark coupe, based on the MKT crossover.

Ultra Lux Mark crossover coupe that goes in an ENTIRELY new direction. Chop based on the Aston Martin Lagonda concept.

I posted this chop with a shorter trunk a couple of weeks ago, but the longer version fits in with this category so well, here it is. A new full-length Town Car based on the MKT Ecoboost crossover.

From the Past: Slinkin' Lincoln

Old-School Kustom 1970 Continental, my Slinkin' Lincoln. Although one NEVER sees a 1970-71 Lincoln these days, with the exception of the Mark III, I've been in love with the clean lines of the this series since they were introduced. If they only had suicide rear doors they'd be PERFECT, lol. I chopped the roof, extended the grille, removed the B pillar, "fixed" the doors so they'd open properly, and cleaned up a bit of trim. If I was Chip Foose, I'd build this car NOW!

BTW:

A Little Bit About the Type on my Digital Pieces

Two words. Two fonts. Self-portrait, 2003, an homage to my earliest typographical memory.

One of my earliest memories of noticing typography was on my first piano teacher's VW Karmann-Ghia. I  started taking lessons at age 5, after having been taught by my mother since I was two, and I can distinctly remember the "Karmann" being in Roman capitals, and the "Ghia" being more of a script font and angled slightly. I was fascinated that two words could use two different types. I started printing some words, and using cursive on others, although I had yet to learn the Palmer Method. Seven or eight years ago, I took a bunch of photos of my friend Sue's incredibly perfectly restored K-G to send to a car magazine in the UK (they used the photos too). This is a digital self-portrait I created from the photo of the trunk of her car, painted Porsche's Guards Red, in tribute to my first memories of the way typography can be used in creative ways.

I've been setting and using type professionally since 1981 when I started out at my local weekly newspaper company in the art/paste up department. Within 3 months I was the art director of 28 local weekly papers, 5 classified sections and a couple of pennysaver-type editions. Back in the Middle Ages of the early 1980s, we set type on a Compugraphic system  which ran out the text in long sheets of paper, which we then manually sliced with scissors to fit on the pages. We had preset type sizes and premade font choices. I pushed the typesetters to the edge of the envelope and beyond in my quest for the "perfect" headline font or art page type treatment. 

When I was promoted to New York, to Women's Wear Daily and the rest of the Fairchild Publications, the Macintosh was just coming into vogue. I became the technical art director in charge of installing these 'new fangled  computers' in all of the art departments. I travelled extensively, going to all the new Apple shows. I became professionally acquainted with the QuarkXpress people, helping them 'beta' their emerging page program in real-world situations. I've been taught by the best typographers out there, putting up with their heinous personalities in many cases, lol, just to learn how to play with type effectively. 

Fonts are one of my true loves in this digital world. I spend a lot of time on kerning, the inter-character spacing, on the letter forms, on the leading, (the space between lines) and every other aspect of the typed word. Sometimes I've found myself spending more time on the type than I did on the Photoshop portion of the rendering. I'm a bit upset with Blogspot's type controls—they're very rudimentary, nonintuitive and seemingly fairly random in execution. I'm not really able to control many aspects of the way the type appears on this blog, but I'm pushing it... As usual.

Strange Brew

C H O P S — Sometimes the pure joy of photoshopping fake cars is creating absolute oddballs—tongue-in-cheek funmobiles, with no eye towards any sort of production reality or statements. I've  mentioned in this blog before that I use my car chops for honing my Photoshop skills for use in my professional life, ie designing books and creating art to hang on walls. Sometimes, I just wanna have fun—cue Cyndi Lauper, "Boys Just Wanna Have Fun," rofl. I hope you have fun thinking of these awesome machines driving around YOUR town. Most of these were done 3-4 years ago, and are rendered in somewhat lower resolution than I use now, but are still fun to peruse. : )

Buick Electra Hybrid Sedanet, with AeroSpats® (once known as fender skirts...) I think this Lexus LS-sized luxury car would truly shake up the segment, and give mileage in the 40s. 

Buick Centurion AWD crossover sedan. British Leyland's "Landcrab" FTW! Click all photos, as usual, to enlarge and see in detail.

1959 Cadillac Coupe de Monofin—world's first CHMSL? : )

How about a Lincoln Cosmopolitan woody wagon. In this case, the wood would be a sliver-like micro-veneer layered under several clearcoats, and would be confined to the doors. Brushed stainless steel would comprise the rest of the body. Copper-anodized wheels round out the 'wtf' design of this mid-next century modern Lincoln.

For more crazy goodness, jump to next page.

Thunderbird: Unique in All the World

My 1967 Thunderbird GT estate wagon, complete with reversible Pucci seat cushions. The real 4 door Tbird, with Lincoln-inspired suicide doors and a tight 4 place bucket seat interior, is one of my favorite Tbirds of all time. Adding a hatch and upping the lux was a natural. Click on all images to enlarge.

My version of an '80 Thunderbird. Instead of using the actual Fairmont-based Tbird fielded that year, I cut down the previous '77-'79 Tbird, resulting in a more attractive, and appropriate, Thunderbird. I rendered it to resemble a wrinkled piece of sketch paper.

The 4th generation Thunderbird, 1964-66, also known as the Squarebird, lend's its lines quite well to a Squire type wagon. I used the suicide-type doors, as Tbird would in '67 for its new 4 door. The unitized body could well have supported an upward opening rear hatch. It would have opened 24 inches into the roof, similar to the late Dodge Magnum's hatch, and would have included the glass of course, leaving the trademark bumper-encircled taillights intact. The wood option was a no-brainer-Country Squires were all the rage in the '60s.

This '64 Sedan is a perfect example of using Photoshop to modify cars. This original Googled image was the standard painted-roof coupe. I've photoshopped it into the suicide door sedan seen here as well as the Squire wagon above. Notice in the wagon photo I've 'deleted' the large rock and sign in front of the driver's door. I've learned to retouch photos in almost any way you can think of, while having fun at the Mac and creating digital works of art of my favorite subject: cars. Work, Education and Fun all at the same time. Not a bad way to spend hours and hours and hours...

C H O P — Thunderbirds have long played a role in my life. The first car I ever fell in love with (age 5) was my aunt Hoohoo's Silver Mink '58 Coupe. Then it was her '64 Diamond Blue coupe she gave me at the age of 16 (along with the '69 Comet I mentioned below that my dad gave me that year. 2 cars for one birthday-I haven't quite hit the jackpot like that since, lol!)

I've chopped more than 25 Thunderbirds in Photoshop throughout the past 5 years. I've created modern ones, and I've 'adjusted' older ones. I use these renderings as practice in Photoshop, hence the various treatments seen here—trying to make them look old/wrinkled at the same time I'm changing their lines in some way. Many, and I mean many, things I've learned by creating these 'fake' cars I've ended up using in the books I design, and in restoring antique photographs.

This fake ad is based on one of the '66 Thunderbird's real ads which appeared in the National Geographic. I changed the roofline's C pillar, added two fixed "skylights," and cleaned up details all around. I also rewrote the taglines and text to reflect this new model's features. I used various filters to make the ad appear aged and stained, as so many vintage paper pieces become. I think the ad captures the feeling of Ford's sixties advertising quite well.

Mercury, 1939-2010. RIP

R E M E M B R A N C E — I'm not even sure where to begin, what to write.

Last week FoMoCo announced that their Mercury division would be phased out this year. 2010 will be the last year for the venerable marque, first sold in 1939 as a 'super deluxe' Ford, with a slightly higher powered V8 engine and a longer wheelbase for a better ride and a more luxurious look.

My first car, bought for my 16th birthday by my Dad, was a then-4 year old Mercury Comet. By '69 the Comet was no longer it's own car with unique sheetmetal. Originally the Comet used a longer Falcon platform; it was then moved up to the newly burgeoning intermediate class in 1966. In '68, the intermediates were renamed Montego, and the Comet became the lowest rung of the lineup, a single 2 door pillarless hardtop, somewhat cynically named "Sport Coupe."

Being the bottom of the line, my Comet came standard with a very low-line interior. Instead of carpeting, the floor was covered with a rubber floor covering, a two-tone textured vinyl covering that 'sort of' simulated carpeting. The seats had pretty flimsy vinylized cloth upholstery, and the exterior had a paucity of chrome—just around the windows, lights and bumpers. However, my particular car was equipped to almost luxury levels with power steering, power brakes, air conditioning, a 302 V8 engine, wire wheel covers, and of all things, an electric trunk opener. It was a great first car, resplendent in its Navy Blue finish. I had the car for 4 years, and was replaced with a mint very low-mileage '68 Cadillac hardtop Sedan de Ville, but that's another story. I have one small black and white polaroid of the Comet. taken to demonstrate how much snow we had the night before, and can't even find that right now. I have no idea why I didn't take more photos of it, I've always been interested in photography, but I guess I'll chalk it up to that youthful feeling that life will never change, that it will go on forever the same way. Oh to have that feeling again...

With the loss of Plymouth and Oldsmobile, the writing has been on the wall for years about Mercury. It's still a shock. I still see a great future for Mercury as the high-tech, hybrid division of FoMoCo and have been touting this concept on car forums for several years. I've probably created close to one hundred Mercurys in photoshop to demonstrate this concept, but it will not be. Ford is closing the door on one of it's Bright Ideas, and I guess we have to move on. Whatever. I'm bitter about it, frankly. But I'm still a "Ford" man at heart, as was my Dad, although I haven't owned a FoMoCo product since the early '90s when I traded in my '85 Lincoln Town Car. And of course, I'm so poor now, I'll never own another one most likely.

I'd also like to mention my web friend Paul, known as 2b2 online, a fellow Mercury lover, a fellow proponent of the Mercury as the high-tech division of Ford, and a fellow creator of future Mercurys that won't see the light of day now. We've posted literally hundreds of ideas and concepts in online forums seen by the Dearborn bigwigs, and he has been a source of inspiration for my chops, and now a source of commiseration as well!

Here are a few samples of the Mercurys I've photoshopped in the past several years. As always, the images are clickable thumbnails and open up to 1000 pixels in width for greater detail.

RIP Mercury.

The Breezeway, made from the Ford Interceptor concept.

Cougar XR-7 hybrid, made from the Giugiaro Mustang concept.

Capri Hybrid 5 door sport sedan, made from a BMW X6 crossover.

Monterey Hybrid luxury 5 door hatch, based on the new Kia Optima

More pics after the jump:

Reflections in the Grundig, July 2007

This is a digital photo of the front of my vintage Grundig Majestic console radio/record player. I've done some sharpening and a bit of contrast and color to counteract the digital camera bias, but I haven't done any layering or superimposing. These are the actual reflections of some of the livingroom collectibles as of July 2007. The Grundig has an incredible polished wood front, that blends from black on the edges to a beautiful golden brown in the middle. In addition the grain is matched on each side in a technique that leaves the join absolutely invisible. The machine itself doesn't work right now, it needs to be rewired, but the case is still outstanding. 

The facade of the ca. 1955 Grundig today. I love the wood finish treatment and the design. The speaker grille slats are particularly stylish in that exhuberant mid-century modern way. The Grundig shield-like logo is highlighted with a gold 'V' almost exactly the same as its contemporary mid fifties Cadillacs, and the gold-tone Grundig Majestic script nameplate underneath the "V" has a definite automotive touch as well.

Nice Driveway in Town

Approximately $500,000 worth of cars in a nearby driveway.

Sorry about not posting for a few days. I haven't started any new art yet, I've been battling migraine headaches, the kind I have to close the curtains and leave the lights off type. I'm better today, but I know it's still right behind my eyes.

I just wanted to update the site so y'all wouldn't think I had left the premises.... This photo is from last summer, and shows an AMG S65 sedan, and AMG SL65 sportscar, and a 760L V12 sedan, all belonging to the same couple. Two people, three of the hottest cars on the planet. Beachside of course.

Back in the next day or two.

Gearing Up

I'm wrapping up on my last publishing job for the next 6-8 weeks. I'll be working on my new series of art starting tomorrow. I'm pretty excited. I've been gathering aged pieces of wood, tons of new cardboard squares for my 'quilts' and have been working on imagery for the past year. I'll have to do a ton of printing, and will be buying new paint and all of that. I really can't wait to begin cutting wood, and sanding, and arranging them into coherent 'bases' for my pieces. Whether it's this initial work, or the painting, or the cutting of printouts, or the fine detail work that seems to go on for months after a piece is 'done,' I really can't wait to begin new pieces!