Just in at Honest Bob's: Unlooked for "Barn Find" type scores of rare vintage 1950s spacecraft which had waited decades to be re-discovered and shipped our way. All but one are damaged and I could not be more delighted with the results. Here's a quick look, with video embeds of the unboxing sessions each running about five minutes. Lots of laughs.
Nobly damaged Marx Toys "Double Gun" spaceship, early 1950s. Missing gun nacelle on the port side, which to me is just battle damaged to be exploited in photo based art visions. A "restoration" idea might be to do a resin mold casting of the intact weapon, something I learned in Plastics Workshop at the venerable Studio Research program at Syracuse. Will have the thing for the rest of my life so, plenty of time to read up & effort the project. Can do.
Was delighted to have a parody accident cleanup scene present itself. Just need a few figures in more or less the same scale. Some kind of painted backdrop and terrain sculpted from Golden's acrylics, and a helicopter if there's an excuse to roll one out. Bingo.
My dad is addicted to these shows. I hear that guy's voice booming through the house at least once a day. I used to hate them and now pay attention for ideas to work with. One of which involves choppering in experts from the History Channel.
STUNNED WORK CREWS TRY TO MAKE SENSE OF THE CHAOS was an actual spoken narration which invaded my peace of mind from the other room. At some point there should be enough of the little clips to assemble them into an entire episode.
The mighty Gilmark Toys X-41 rocket car, in admirable condition for a toy more or less designed to be broken and replaced.
Back here on the arts side again with an embed regarding how I plan to approach this project as sort of a tutorial. Surface is a 9x17 crate style gift box, plain wood. Came with packaged cheese, crackers, jams and other such mail-order Christmas fare. Painted Marx Toys space tank missing its dozer blade needed something bigger than my 4x4 inch Fun Size.
Project had gotten stalled at this state with Marx tank descending crater to meet up with out of scale painted Marx astronaut from the same playset. Knew we could do better.
Much better.
Now it's an accident scene from one of those shows where guys in foil suits pull wrecked tractor trailers out of the snow. Only it's a spaceship and we're on Ganymede, where it snows frozen methane. My dad loves the shows and terrorizes anyone present with them daily. Plenty of material to work with here, respectfully. But yeah, this is therapy.
Some nomenclature for the box's etymology. All the way from China! Better their trees, I guess ...
The bottom will get a basic treatment of crackle paste moon terrain then sealed over with enough gel medium to be sealed in safely for display on tables or shelves. Though usually I approach the artworks anticipating it will hang on a wall and it seemed kind of weak to just leave the base plain.
I try to think of the box form as nine small panels intersecting at 90 degree angles. Each one should be its own interesting little painting, and all nine should work together no matter what angle they are seen from. When you first approach artwork in person it is rarely face on, and seldom from the Dutch Angle views I use for standalone pix. So it has to at least look intriguing from all sides, if not damn good for something that small.
My standard 4x4 and 5x7 inch sizes. Seemed kind of lame to have the sides just bare or even painted black, so I started letting the insides creep out. Now as much time goes into crafting the sides & bottom as do the main interior panels.
Goal for the sky on what I call The Forgotten Box with color shifts in a whispy haze of Light Interfere Fluid Acrylics. Then glassed over with multiple coats of Clear Tar Gel dried to a visible depth, with the shimmering Micaceous Iron Oxide Fluid Acrylic optically magnified by the curves in the dried gel layer.
So, working this motif sort of backwards: Usually I paint the box and then choose the found pieces to tell some sort of absurd little story. In this case it's starting with the story and a barely begun box, then crafting both to complement the other. The idea will change and evolve, spawning others. There are plenty of broken spaceships to go around ...
GOTCHA
Camera crew ready for more emotive interviews back at the Space Garage.
Accident cleanup crew from "Heavy Rescue 411: Ganymede Station Edition" with foul-tempered Irate Pilot at far right. Imprudent speed in a methane blizzard, could have been a lot lot worse. Everyone needs to learn to just slow down.
Concept for the project best summed up by this trailer clip, Meant to be a space parody of those Weather Channel shows where guys in foil suits pull wrecked trucks out of the snow. My dad is addicted to them, will watch two or more episodes every day ...
In drydock with pristine example of the form. First marketed in the US c.1952 (?) and elsewhere through the end of the decade. I like how these are American made even if extremely fragile, low density plastic that dislikes being dropped onto hard surfaces. Which while an indication of their era (soft "unbreakable" plastics first invented 1954) I've often suspected a clever marketing ploy in selling more units.
Vended originally from counter bins at Woolsworths etc for $.15 cents, two for a quarter. Now highly prized collector's bling, the damaged red ship came that way to me with others as fodder for artworks.
An example of the color scheme I'd employ here on a Marx Toys space dozer tank missing its bulldozer blade, as Corporal Qtzklplzk tries to 'esplain how he locked the keys inside. Sgt. Hallstead barks "Hour walk back to base for the spare set. Enjoy it."
Utilizing Golden's fluid Micaceous Iron Oxide for a grungy oil-caked "Used Universe" look, like she just rolled off a Jawa scrap heap.
Another example using an LP Toys style Checkers Rocket. Minimal and like it's made out of metal.
The full composition, box is about 9x17 which is the largest one of these I've tried so far. Terrain yet to be fully sculpted, and I want debris scattered around the impact site,
Long/short is that we have a new parody make believe TV show idea to have fun with. Debated on which blog to go over this on as there's as much art content as space bling worship. But it's about those plastic ships right now, the painting to follow. Usually it's worked the other way, starting with a more or less finished painted box that needed something inside to tell a story. This time it started as finding an idea large enough to snugly fill the void-like expanse of a much larger area than my standard 4x4 inch size.
Not sure about the text but want a "splash screen" with the make believe show's name, will refine it. Depicts an accident scene involving a somewhat rare Gilmark Toys hard plastic space car in a severely damaged state I'd obtained for a few dollars more. Held onto it knowing I wanted to utilize its still respected hull in a creative manner ... We just happened to have one of those Heavy Machine Rescue type shows on during supper, where guys up in Canada wearing brightly colored foil suits pull wrecked tractor trailers out of the snow? and bingo.
The box work as originally plotted out, painting just there at this stage to suggest an off-world location. Box is a 10x20 inch cheese collection gift crate from the late Uncle Michael. Best idea I'd come up with was to make a crater (at right) with plasticine that a likewise broken but handsomely painted Marx Toys space tank could traverse down to meet up with a painted Marx astronaut.
Groovy idea, but what of it? I like it when the arrangement suggests a little story, the more absurd the better. And the only rule is that the painting has to be as cool as whatever goes into the box or you're just flappin air. Craft table bling priced $50 or less, maybe clickbait eye-candy for people to "Like" on social media. Pass. Set it aside for a month & worked on other things.
Mayhem. Now we have a story to tell, and much more to fill in starting with finishing the painted scene. Needs a space heliocopter or wreckage hauling garbage ship in the sky over the tank, suspended by wire etc. The terrain will be more terraformed and scattered with debris from the mishap. And I want to paint the crashed ship with a stainless steel iridescent acrylic that looks like metal. Not like I could mess it up any further.
Are we having fun yet?
What I'm after. My dad is hooked on these shows, and will gleefully watch two or more episodes a day if allowed. He admires how it stars essential workers who modestly go about difficult tasks in bone-chilling, dangerous conditions for basic pay. No false heroes being celebrated, just guys who go home to their families at the end of the day. Sit in a chair, maybe have a warm meal.
I used to hate it, and still cannot discern between the two or three shows if its kind that feature into our routine programming here at Camp Nyland. I believe they are produced by the Weather Channel? and all have that same narrator whose voice has become more frequently heard in our house than music. Or at least upstairs on B Deck where my painting area is.I hear that guy booming on all the time, and when the inspiration hit I felt it was time to respond in kind: "Just go for it, snarky media parody and all." Cross-topic interest with the potential of a new audience who follow the show and want artworks involving work crews cleaning up after rocket accidents ... I have a lot of broken space ships in my boxes of stuff set aside to feature in artworks. Consider this warming up a new trope.
Our pilot at right in gold, a Gumdrop Alien cyborg by LP Toys of Hong Kong. That's his spouse in orange begging him to please get down from there, same toy line. Assorted astronauts by Giant Plastics, Multiple Toymakers, Airfix, and LP Toys, all painted with acrylics by Golden's. Dutch angle closeups like these can be printed + framed, or projected, enlarged, traced, painted into, and become their own flat 2d artworks. Kind of a nice angle to work from right there.
Which wasn't easily arrived at. Total time invested could be rounded down to three months of stop/go work over two years. First the elements had to be found, some of which I've had since 2019. The figures and space tank had to be selected from that stash and painted. Then the box selected & its terrain begun, the prior idea with the space tank worked on for about a month. Then the inspiration of the wrecked ship had to present itself, along with an hour or so excitedly fumbling up the collection of elements shown. Another hour taking pix, several more sorting them, modifying them, and writing up the post. Other things were created during that time span as well so it's not like this was a sole focus.
Drydock at Ganymede Station, one of our commercial and industrial hubs on Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede, where forward bases to explore Saturn's life-rich water moons were established. Current population is about 22,000 mostly made up of industrial workers, miners, refinery crews and the support staff needed to provide lodgings and recreation for a small city's worth of humans. Which fifty years on is a mix of both Terrestrial colonists and Out Worlders who have never set foot on Earth.
One thing is for sure: My astronauts are always in trouble. One misadventure after another.
Saturdays are for what I call Culture of Collectingposts about my interest in vintage space toys in addition to cutting lawns here at Camp Nyland. And much of today was spent avoiding doing the latter while ogling a long-wanted item of 1950s plastic space bling - The "Pyromatic Rocket Ship" space car manufactured by Pyro Plastics in the USA starting in 1952 (?). I'd had a similar rig but this baby is logo marked, beautifully intact and the lawn will be there tomorrow no matter how much rain falls on it. Having priorities in order is a vital step to success.
Some video on the specimen and other items of interest. Runs four minutes ... Not sure what was up with my voice that day, sounds like someone who pahked theyh cahh in Bahhstan Yaad.
The Culture of Collecting (thinking seminar titles here) refers to how I felt an obligation to be conversant on the toy forms used in creating my artworks. Especially the vintage 50s and 60s stuff that others collect very passionately. Pyro Plastics has its own following separate from the space toy era as fabricators of model kits and scale replica vehicles, each of which has their own culture of collectors. You have to learn your onions and figure out the neighborhood, though my fascination is squarely with their space toy creations.
Octopus Hunt, 2019, 11x8 inches, pastel and acrylics on laser print of digital photo. Toy forms by MPC, Britain's Ltd. and Dollar Tree. Terrain and backdrop acrylic paintings on wood.
A lot of research went into learning vintage toy lingo and being able to accurately describe each piece that would figure into my art schemes. Their pedigree and history are part of the formula. I get more inspiration from vintage forms than contemporary, my geek button being switched on by Cold War era design sensibilities, functionality, and the right shapes. We're going to have fun utilizing this beauty as a photo subject for flatworks, printed or traced as above.
No Vintage Space Toys Are Harmed In The Creation Of My Artwork
Three minute upload outlining the project including choice of box and other strange tales. Had a great brainstorm session and turned it into content - Post here on what I call my Space Blog with more pix and some of my thought process on the early conception here. Features the same video as above.
Some of the original 1960s toy line that the painted figure is based on, manufactured by Multiple Products Company (MPC) from 1962 to 1984 or so. Had em as a kid, finding some were a priority. My favorite is the Sentry at far right with the Soozaphone held up to his helmet. Would that work in a vacuum?
This figure a copy from the 1990s I painted and he needs a very special housing. Click the image to see more!
https://spacetrucks.blogspot.com/ is the other blog feed on this Toys As Art project. I'm regarding it as the Culture Of Collecting part of the project where I share the space bling I've collected + what I've been able to learn about it with both other collectors and casual space rockers.
The Dude, or my "Major Tom", 54mm with fitted helmet, 1952. I have other Major Toms too.
I came up with the name Space.Trucks as a descriptive term for the kind of stuff I'm drawn to, usually work related space age ground vehicles. Old archaic looking helicopters too, and Cold War era space adventurers who eventually ditched the ray guns & atom bombs for cameras and sample collection sticks. The crew of my favorite film ALIEN from 1979 are also often referred to as Space Truckers working a huge hauling rig resembling the inside of a B-52 bomber. And that's cool.
Lido Toys Captain Video & Futureman figures with a section of tin litho space port wall from a playset for the line concocted by T. Cohn Superior in 1952. On my Bucket List.
The Space Trucks posts are usually about the older toy forms I've found inspiration from, with lots of pictures and usually a video upload where I open up the arriving box as an ongoing performance art project. I checked, it's valid: Opening your mail on camera counts as performance art, or it can. I try to mix the procedure up with pop culture clips or other non-sequitor distractions to result in an enjoyable viewing experience even for those who do not share the enthusiasm. I strongly feel that art should be fun, when appropriate, or at least enjoyable.
Short subject upload from my YouTube introducing Kellogg's absurd alien robot names for the Lido characters from a 1955 Corn Flakes promotion.
I also wanted to note that my goal is to usually work these posts as shorter subject fare rather than long rambling hyperbole about esoteric personal interests. But right now we're sort of unloading 3+ years of content that accumulated during the time spent helping to care for Mom and did not have much room for sharing my creative energies beyond basic social media, let alone in gallery type settings.
So some of what's turning up right now is admittedly breathless from having waited so long to be told. I am enjoying having that pressure vent off at last!! and looking forward to working both blogs like a remote job of some kind, with brevity and humor always being my objective.
Painting from 2020 using a larger Lido "Futureman" figure as an outline for the old Larry Rivers routine. Worked on it with Mom at our dining room table studio during the height of the pandemic. Unfinished, 32x24 pastel and acrylics on canvas board.
It took four years to complete a set of one each of their possible twelve poses, during which I learned all I could about the company which made them, the show they promoted, and other forms of that era.
Here's today's Culture of Collection item from the Space Trucks blog featuring my favorite of the pioneering early 1950s space bling, Lido Toy's insane Captain Video and his Video Rangers mayhem 1952 - 1955.
We share it here hoping it can provide some quasi-academic grounding for how this project came about, trying to help others understand the form and spread the collecting culture among like minded geeks the world over.
How about that for a big painting, 5x12 feet or so, either on canvas or as a mural. Like a big busy Hieronymous Bosch crowd scene with these jabbering creatures waving their arms excitedly. Using my painterly edge in acrylics, working the surface textures, weird details and pop cartoon colors. All I need is a projector to trace the outlines and enough room to swing a hammer while building the stretcher.
Stick with me here, you'll like this. (Both blog and video now re-edited for brevity) I want to sieze the moment and bring readers up to speed on current methods. All paints & gels by Golden Artist Colors.
The materials used on this project, begun October 2021 (!!). Now painting on smaller plain wood boxes with an ambition to craft 3d artworks that suggest found object dioramas. I want the painting itself to suggest a hybrid between painting and ceramics, and be more about crafting the materials than painting pictures.
Above are the range of acrylics used for this particular box, which itself was a plain craft shop type box found on Amazon for about $6. Below is a short video which outlines how the use of Clear Tar Gel in particular had a significant hand in how I was able to "finish" the painting off.
Long short is that the artwork got way overworked especially the sky. Poor thing even began to de-laminate in places where the luan layers moistened up.
The space terrain is boss and that patch of dawn peeking through at left was OK. But everything else above those hills was weak and I darn near almost tried sanding it off.
Fasteners go on the back, and my presumption has always been that the work will be shown on a wall at some point so I always let the painting spill over onto the bottom. Which itself is piled over with layers of either the Clear Tar Gel or the Matte Heavy Gel I like to use to help adhere the Crackle Paste to the surface.
I tried putting various toy pieces in to see if they could bring the painting to life, this here my custom painted Marx Toys "Moon Base" series space tank from 1962 missing its bulldozer blade. I always use toy pieces that are damaged, playworn, or inexpensive copies. It re-purposes what would be someone's garbage. But this didn't help: The tank was more successful than the box, which breaks the only rule -- The painting has to be as sweet as whatever goes inside or it's flea market fare.
Cactus piece from a cowboy playset out of Spain, early 1970s? Bonus goodie from a vendor that caught my attention and became thematically attached to this box painting. What else to go with it to tell a little story?
Space Hippies with Kool Kombi Camper, and an early look for the sky. Volkswagen from 2018 by Hot Wheels, figures by Multiple Toymakers c.1969. Accurately describing the interior contents is part of the materials list for me. Collectors of Hot Wheels etc may happen upon an online listing while searching their favorite collectibles. And boom.
This setup did not make the cut but we got pix and those can be printed, and I save archives of all my photo sessions for just that purpose. Good art leads to more art. See anything you like feel welcome to email or leave a comment below.
"Space Tourists Posing for Pix by the Giant Space Cactus out near Ganymede Station" didn't make the cut. Figures by Airfix and Multiple Toymakers, "4xForce" 2019 by Matchbox.
Ganymede Station is a creation of mine as a setting for many of the little narrative space scenarios. Inspired by "Ganymede Beacon" from the 1974 "Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen" adventure. My imagination suggesting that someday humankind will routinely travel our solar system on both research and commercial ventures and Jupiter will likely prove to be a good earner for both. Has like eighty moons some of which have atmospheres, the largest of which is Ganymede. Such a great name.
This almost made the cut - "The Last Pistolero from a Space Spaghetti Western". Larger scale figure made in Hong Kong copied from a classic MPC spaceman pose. Decided he needed a cowboy hat over that helmet or some eight year old was going to call me out on how that doesn't look like a cowboy. He'd be right, so natch that. Will be looking out for a vintage hat that might fit & thinking how to make my own.
I do like this angle, Space Pistolero headed for his showdown with his lunch box. Pix like these can be printed or projected or traced onto paper or canvas etc to be painted over/into and serve as flat artworks, even just as framed prints as is. Can be scaled up as large as the projector, and instantly overcomes my awkward rendering skills in depicting the human form or machines etc, when more precision would produce convincing results.
Trying to go minimal avant gardy here with medicine cups slathered with Micaceos Iron Oxide. Didn't make the cut, but did make me think how much I love glossing over these mica painted medicine cups with Clear Tar Gel, and the optical effect which resulted.
Applying a more or less even layer of Clear Tar Gel to the upside down "sky" inside the box here. Try to even it out and set it aside for 48 hours. The result is a glass clear film over whatever is underneath what appears to be a visible layer of glass. And while it does more or less level itself out while settling to dry, the end result is almost always slightly curved or warped from the naturally curved meniscus layer which forms, acting like a curved lens.
One minute video on the transformation results.
Proud of that now. The colors literally change as the angle of the eye moves relative to the surface. The speckles from the bits of mica also dazzle the eye and seem to shimmer like lights in the night sky.
I like to think of the boxes as nine small paintings all intersecting at right angles to each other. Each discreet panel should both read as it's all tiny painting and contribute to a larger composition involving all nine sides assembled as a box.
So I'm always peering at it from different angles to try and visualize how others will experience its qualities as a 3 dimensional object occupying space. Does that make it a sculpture too? I'll have to check into that.
YES.
I could see that sofa size.
I to use a helicopter crew for the narrative came up the week before when choosing this nice yellow helicopter for a different piece in 4x4x3 inch size. Helicopter a 1970s copy made in China, and the figure on the right is from the Golden Astronaut toy line, 1968.
"Pilot Down Behind The Lines", 4x4x3 inches overall. Finishing touch was the MPC B-52 bomber flying support just like in The Six Million Dollar Man. Pilot rescue scenes are a recurring motif and excuse for always keeping an eye out for more little helicopter toys. The more obsolete looking the better.
"Lunar Module Pilot Down Behind The Lines" is our title this time. Which is absurd, no Lunar Modules ever flew in combat. They were space pickups that landed on the moon so that guys could go off and play golf.
For now the figures & bling get adhered to the surface using a student grade craft hot glue gun for a flexible bond which would be easy enough to work loose without damaging the plastic figures.
See how projecting or tracing etc this image would result in a pretty smooth design for any project requiring guys doing exciting stuff with a helicopter. When painting them in they can be any color or wear any outfit or carry any gear one could think to paint into or over them. About to get busy with some of that part the concept this spring & summer with a refurbed studio basement. Room for a projector and five foot canvas, bring these into the human scale.
There he's making a break for it! I try to avoid choosing figures holding guns, but in this case it works on a thematic level. But yeah, we don't need to see more guns. They bring cameras up to the moon.
While having all this fun I try to keep in mind how viewers would be encountering the results in person i.e. gallery setting, which is nailed to some wall at or around average eye level. Viewers likely won't be crouching down to squint-eye the dutch angles I use for the macro pix. So the objectness of the overall box is just as important as what's inside.
That could also be a good action angle to try painting, with the lunar module pilot like in a blur as he runs for his life. We try to keep the scenes humorous and sly but this is one for those who love action.
Proud of that. Will share up how it finalizes, and my aim for the blog is to have a at least new smallish post every 2nd day. Stop back again soon!
