Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - cycling art

As an art student and a cyclist I often want to incorporate the two. Though when I seem to do only those who cycle seem to enjoy the pieces, do you think this is a matter of imagery or do people who are not involved in bikes really just hate bikes? haha I was offered a spot on a tour across America this coming summer with Ride:Well Tour and for some fundraising I am thinking about printing some smallish prints and selling them. So I just wanted to get some opinions about the cycling related art. I am doing some sketches now so I can post those to give a better idea when they are closer to being complete.

thanks SSFG army.

I love cycling art. I frequent ffffound.com and they usually have at least one piece of art involving bikes on the first two pages if not more.

RISD is famous for making their applicants draw a picture of a bicycle however they choose as a submission piece. I've always wanted to try and make some sculptures using found bike parts, but I don't really have much welding experience, heh. Show us your work!

It's not that people hate bikes, it's just that they don't care about cycling. You have to make things that people want to look at, and a picture of a guy riding a bike is going to be overlooked by the majority of people because it has no universal appeal. It's about focus, not aesthetics or philosophy.

You have to make things that people want to look at, and a picture of a guy riding a bike is going to be overlooked by the majority of people because it has no universal appeal.

Which is ridiculous to me. I'm not interested in flowers or landscapes but appreciate good art when I see it.

fair enough. There are some great paintings and pictures and whatever of flowers but when I see a flower outside I don't think it's great and wonderful so where is that line that makes someone stop? is it the "good" art line that makes someone stop or is it all based on prior interests? A cyclist would likely stop and look at a cycling piece because he knows about it but not everyone is a botanist and a lot of people enjoy O'Keefe's naughty flowers. It's an interesting thought I wanted to see other opinions.

I don't think the subject matter is that big of a deal. You said it matters about focus and not aesthetics but I think art is actually the complete opposite of that. If a piece of ****ing brilliant, but the subject matter doesn't appeal to me, I'll still love it, I just won't identify with it immediately.

I don't think flowers are any more interesting than bikes either. Anything can be the subject of a great piece of art. The most beautiful thing in the world could be painted in a very boring way, and no one would ever care about the painting, despite its beauty. Likewise, the most boring and ugly things can be turned into the most beautiful and interesting works of art. It all depends on what you, the artist, make of it. You have to make people see things in new and interesting ways. If you just paint a bicycle, you haven't done this. Try the O'Keefe thing and paint a bike that looks like a vagina.

Try the O'Keefe thing and paint a bike that looks like a vagina.

Yes, this.

k number one, this would be screen printed so where the black is would be both the blue and red printed on top of each other to make a muddy blackish color.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b146/funkywaffels89/ridewell1.jpg

take two
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b146/funkywaffels89/ridewell2.jpg
quote by James E. Starrs

I think it comes down to if the audience can relate to it. I mean, everyone has tried to have sex with flowers, that's why O'Keefe's stuff was so popular.

(just kidding)

But seriously, most people just don't relate to cycling. They don't "get it". It's just riding a bike to them. Just like some people can't relate to ethnic art. Like a scene of an African American girl getting her hair combed by her mom. Some people will get it because they know it's 30 minutes of pure hell that both people involved hate to do, but it's necessary and worth it in the end. And certainly a bonding experience for it all.

There are similar scenes in cycling: Epic climbs, sprints, being and feeling alone on long rides, "digging deep", etc...that only cyclists can relate to.

...so only hipsters are gonna relate to hipsters in hipster-themed art.

oh.

I think it works if the bike is used more as a symbol than a theme

so make cycling related art but make it relevant to anyone who comes across it? it's like selling out, I want to find what intrigues people about art then relate it to cycling-related art haha. Good discussion though keep it coming.

so make cycling related art but make it relevant to anyone who comes across it? it's like selling out, I want to find what intrigues people about art then relate it to cycling-related art haha. Good discussion though keep it coming.

It's not selling out...it's selling.

Personally, I don't care how "deep" someone's art is, if it's of no interest to me, why the heck do I care?

The only time an artist can truly be fulfilled and not "sell out" is when what he/she creates happens to coincide with what people are interested in...and interested in buying.

Kind of like my black wayfarer eyeglasses. Girls thought I was so trendy. They didn't know that I'd been wearing them for years before not as a fashion statement, but because they were the ONLY frames that I could get to fit my huge head. I sort of stumbled into it. Awesome. But, it's gonna suck a year or two from now when that look is dated and hated. Oh well.

So, people will "get you" when the stuff you like to do coincides with what people like. Until then you can be frustrated or make sh*t that they like. They do have the money after all.

Oh and, Artists who were "before their time" got lucky.

As a fellow artist, why not paint whatever you want? j

I will print and make whatever I want of course just seems the niche of cycling art is stuck online and not as often seen in print or a tangible painting.

maybe i'll get lucky haha I'll keep putting up sketches and stuff for you fools to look at and critique. If anyone has some cycling related art that they made they should put it in here so we can check it out.

Here some Mike Giant Hipster Cycle tees from me collection:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1208/5179232356_5fbfdea71f_z.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1001/5179226664_03145f8d20_z.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1407/5178625775_9cb077104d_z.jpg

non drive side

maybe i'll get lucky haha I'll keep putting up sketches and stuff for you fools to look at and critique.

Not sure many here can actually critique, maybe criticize.

I have a painting from a while ago, nothing special though
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2009/355/9/0/My_L_A__by_gaviD.jpg

^ Doesn't look like a vagina to me. Just sayin, bro...

Maybe female reproductive parts should be my motif.

this photo only appeals to those who adore telephone poles.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosubaru/4698790238/
and freeway retaining walls
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emosubaru/4744378396/

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/scrodzilla/BF/obvious.png

My business partner and a friend of his did these last year or the year before it for a contest here in town. I don't know if they won, but they should have.

http://www.deformcreative.com/images/bikelife.jpg

My business partner and a friend of his did these last year or the year before it for a contest here in town. I don't know if they won, but they should have.

http://www.deformcreative.com/images/bikelife.jpg

Call me crazy, but that's not art. That's graphic design...and probably copyright infringement.

http://www.celebutopia.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/et1.jpg

Call me crazy, but that's not art. That's graphic design...and probably copyright infringement.

http://www.celebutopia.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/et1.jpg

I'm confused, do graphic design and art have to be different things?

Also, the E.T. reference was implied. Hence the "save a life" part.

They're totally different things. As someone who is quite competent in graphic design, I don't consider myself an "artist" by any means.

Yes, Scrod prefers to be called an "artiste"

sorry but I must say that your drawings simply need alot of work. Don't be disheartened, as an art student you must know that you art always needs improvement. I think you have potential, but your subject matter and style is very.....cliche. Don't try to make a teeshirt print that looks like other teeshirts. I see where you are going with this, and it is the capitalize on hipsters style teeshirt art. Work on simplifying the picture, and clean up your linework. try to bring out in the most simple and elegant manner possible what you are trying to convey. A fire hydrant spilling hopewater? No find a way to describe the fun and thrill of riding a bike...sure saving the planet is great, but it is not what is magical about bikes, that is just a fringe benifit. What about the feeling of being a kid again, or the thrill when you go fliying down the street or in between traffic and parked cars. Put that into your design. Get more suggestion of motion into the picture too.

*just had an idea, don't have a tablet to sketch it, but here goes: linework, no shade or coloring, the top of a set of drop bars, as seen from riders pov, add break levers for context, no hands. above that, in simple helvetica, "the view is better from here." I see it on a green teeshirt.

I'm from Mobile, AL.

Right on. You still live here?

Naw. I haven't lived there in a long time. I remember going into shops and asking about fixed gear parts when I was briefly there in 2002 and they looked at me like I was crazy. I remember picking up an old Cannondale frame at Spoke n Trail on Old Shell. I think I got it for like $10. I converted it to single speed because I couldn't find any track hubs. I think that place is closed now.

Ah they moved to a new location. Nice place, but not as 'local' i guess would be the word. Fancier and you def couldn't get a $10 used frame anymore lol. But the fixed gear crowd is here, there is even a bike polo league. Pretty cool stuff. I usually commut from downtown to south on old shell, not on SS though, springhill is only fun ONE way. Downtown area is great for SS mtb tho, who needs MTB trails when you have these f-ed up sidewalks to jump...

That's great to hear!

I tried to move back to Mobile. All of my family is there. I couldn't find work there, though.

Good luck at South. I hope your football team gets off the ground. Look at Georgia State! They played Alabama last week. They are on the way to going from a club to a full on program. I think GSU played South before as a club vs club game.

take two
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b146/funkywaffels89/ridewell2.jpg
quote by James E. Starrs

Or you could put a happy face on the rider and call it a flight into happiness. Just a matter of a person's psychological makeup..
.. Our entry is decorated by photographs of our bike tours from the past, by a Graham Watson photograph of the Tour De France approaching the Arc de Triumph , and Toulouse Lautrec's sketch of Le Chaine Simpson.. As one enters our home, no mistaking our interests .

Thanks! Yeah the football team is doing well.
Sorry to hear you couldn't move back, but I know what you mean about work. The industries that are growing now (austal, thyssen krupp) are rather limited in field. My plan is to hopefully move to Houston or New Orleans after graduation, assuming i find a job there, but who knows, there may be an opportunity somewhere that I have never even considered.

They're totally different things. As someone who is quite competent in graphic design, I don't consider myself an "artist" by any means.

As someone who has lived off of graphic design for the past 4 years, I can say there is an extremely fine line between the two, if one exists at all.

Granted, I would never call the stuff that I do for work art, but I also work in the adult industry. I have, however, created some stuff on my computer that I would definitely classify as "art".

Call me crazy, but that's not art. That's graphic design...and probably copyright infringement.
As someone already stated there is an incredibly blurred line between fine art and Graphic design / Illustration. That line is usually only exists if there was a deadline.
Also ps it's only copyright infringement if he sells it. :)

So, is this "art" ?

A shirt I'm working on.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/5187386004_762534680e_b.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs594.ash2/154603_507901395455_108400225_30176753_6176286_n.jpg
(not me fyi)

So, is this "art" ?

Yes.

ah the classic graphic design vs. art battle. Let's have some context, I don't draw to fit the "hipster/cliche" it's how I have drawn before I knew what that would even mean. http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b146/funkywaffels89/Unicorns_Are_Not_Real_Screenprint_14inby17in.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b146/funkywaffels89/Whats_Your_Beef_Intagio_14inby15in.jpg

These are for school but have similar line quality and what not.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs594.ash2/154603_507901395455_108400225_30176753_6176286_n.jpg


There's a 'Beverly Cycling Club'?

Give it time, right now it's just my buddy and I. And i'm the only one with a bike. We are gonna wait until the weather is nicer before anything gets organized. Besides I just like to make shirts for teams that don't exist. ( and we only play frisbee once in awhile. )
Example:
http://www.kylethewilson.com/images/digital/beeshirt.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs039.snc3/12640_506139191925_108400225_30122941_6974739_n.jpg