When I started this blog last spring I had hoped I'd get a few readers - a lot would have been nice but a few would have done. However, I recently had a good look at my stats and realised that most of my visits have been from Google, my ISP and web-crawlers. I'd noticed that it was the same few posts appearing in my stats and they were being viewed in the same countries week after week.
Out of a measly 545 page views I only know of 3 genuine visits and maybe a couple more that I think might be by bloggers I've come to know online.
My posts take quite a while to put together and I don't have a lot of spare time so I don't publish a lot but I'm clearly doing something wrong as no-one is reading them even though they usually get top 10 Google listings.
So this will most likely be my last post. If you do read my blog then please comment or email and I'll keep posting; if not...
Catch you... later?
Update:
Yay! I have readers! Thanks for your +1's and an extra-special Hi to Galeria de Arte AFK!
I have a few posts planned, more art and more trips so stay tuned!
Los Angeles in the late 1970's saw the appearance of Lowbrow art which had its roots in hot-rod culture, underground comics and punk. By the late 1990s/early 2000s Pop Surrealism had become an offshoot of that movement. Different websites claim different sources for the first use of the name. Wikipedia cites the The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museums 1998 exhibition as the first use of the term and I've yet to find an earlier one.
What I thought would be a relatively simple post about a few artists has turned into a peek under the lid of Pandoras Box. The more I looked, the more I found. So I've decided to limit this post to a few artists who produce work in a style similar to Mark Ryden to act as a brief introduction and guide through this particular branch of Pop Surrealism. I've included the artists preferred medium so you can compare their styles (the featured work isn't necessarily in that medium).
I hope you've found this little introduction useful. You may not agree with my interpretation of the similarities to each of the featured artists styles but maybe I just see things differently. I'm afraid I couldn't track down the titles of some of the works but I'll update this post as and when the information turns up and I'll add some more artists when I find them.
Last month I went to the Dakota Raceway Drag 'n' Drift at Smeatharpe in Devon. Smeatharpe used to be an RAF airfield and the events are run at each end of one of the disused runways. Two different types of event are run at the same time; drag racing and drifting.
For the uninitiated drag racing involves 2 cars, bikes or any other vehicles racing against each other over a 1/4 mile strip.
Wikipedia defines drifting as: 'Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels or all tires, while maintaining control from entry to exit of a corner. A car is drifting when the rear slip angle is greater than the front slip angle, to such an extent that often the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn (e.g. car is turning left, wheels are pointed right or vice-versa, also known as opposite lock or counter-steering)'.
The first thing that you experience is the stench of burning rubber from the drifting end - I think the tyres must have a different rubber compound as the smell is quite sweet rather than the usual burning rubber pong.
I started at the drifting end where a Nissan 200SX S13 (180SX in Japan and 240SX in North America) and a Nissan Skyline R33 GTS were blasting through the cones:
Next out were a Nissan 200SX S14 and a BMW 3 series estate. The cars do a few laps then make way for the next cars and so it goes on - non-stop revving and burning rubber!
Another Nissan 200SX S14 with a Nissan Stagea in the background:
Nissan 200SX S13's are very popular for drifting in the UK (which is probably the reason that I can't find an unmodified one for sale anywhere...)
The official photographer was the only person allowed this close:
Apologies for the quality of the movie below; it was filmed on my Olympus 590 which doesn't have great quality video but it does have a zoom lens.
A great mix of cars queuing for the drifting - Nissans, BMWs and a sole Mazda MX5:
Between the drifting and the drag end is the maintenance area where the cars are prepped and adjusted between racing. I couldn't help drooling over this lush S13:
When I reached the drag end 2 bikers were warming their tyres prior to racing:
Whilst watching the bikes a guy began chatting to me and told me that his wife was about to make her second run in her racing mini:
Team briefing:
Back to the drifting end, and in the maintenance area was this ultra rare Nissan Stagea being tweaked for its next drifting session:
BMW versus Nissan - this is what drifting should look like!
I've still to find out what the pole thingy is called and what the significance of whacking is
A rather battered looking Mazda RX7 (Series 4) with a Nissan 200SX S14 in the background:
Highly modified Nissan 200SX S14:
Highly modified Nissan 200SX S13:
A last visit to the drag strip to see what's up next -
Split-screen VW van
A Ginetta and a well modded Ford Zephyr
The Ginetta made short work of the Honda Accord (not well matched me thinks):
And finally back to the drifting end to have a look behind the scenes. Burning rubber all day, well, burns a lot of rubber. Drifting tyres get thoroughly shredded:
So this guy is here to keep the drivers supplied with fresh tyres. I'm guessing drifting requires some deep pockets....
If you're interested in motorsport and are looking for something a bit different I can highly recommend Dakota Drag n Drift. It costs £10 as a spectator and £50 to race. If you do visit, be aware that even though the racing areas are safely cordoned off, the maintenance area is very near the entrance lane leading to the car park, so keep your eyes open for vehicles coming and going. There are, however, plenty of marshals keeping an eye on proceedings.
As I'm writing this the last race of the year has just about finished (unfortunately I couldn't attend today) but the links below should be useful if you plan to visit in the future:
A few weeks ago I visited the Ray Harryhausen exhibition at the Bill Douglas Museum situated within the grounds of Exeter University. I'm afraid the exhibition has finished now but I took a few photos in case you missed it. I was hoping I could live blog but again I was thwarted by a lack of mobile internet - seeing as I was in the grounds of a university I had expected at least some signal but whatev. I also ran into another small problem with the pics; the exhibition itself (actually just 3 cabinets) was set-up opposite a floor to ceiling window facing the sun which resulted in some awful reflections and my phone's camera autofocus getting a bit confused.
Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) was an American visual effects creator, writer, and producer. He worked on 25 films and numerous other projects from 1937 to 2002 with his most memorable works being Mighty Joe Young (1949), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Clash of the Titans (1981).
I grew up watching Jason and the Argonauts and the Sinbad films. For these films (and many others) Ray created a form of stop-motion model animation known as 'Dynamation' (explained here).
The exhibition displayed props and concept art from the following films:
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
The Valley of Gwangi
War of the Worlds
Mighty Joe Young
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
The Story of King Midas
The Story of the Tortoise and the Hare
Clash of the Titans
Jason and the Argonauts
My favourite has to be Talos from 'Jason and the Argonauts'. As a kid I remember seeing this colossal bronze statue come to life and thinking that even though it could move and appeared to be alive, it's blank, dead eyes betrayed its soulless existence (I was 8 so I didn't use those exact words but you know what I mean). I hoped that there was an island somewhere where these huge statues actually existed and that one day I might get to see them.
Even though the exhibition is over, if you're a film fan a visit to the Bill Douglas Museum is a must - it's quite small but there's so much packed in.
Here's some useful links and as always the full list of sources is at the bottom of the page:
