Getting Up to Speed
A look behind the relaunch of “Driven”
Today marks the launch of an "overhaul" of the Driven mashup gallery. This is mainly the result of a couple of recent photography trips to junk car lots, the first one in Indiana and the second in Minnesota. These trips are a literal fulfillment of the artist's statement on this site's home page: "I'm an artist who finds as much joy roaming through a junk car lot as I do a picturesque landscape." Over 1500 source images were taken between the two locations and, for me, the initial set of mashups produced represent a significant step in cementing a unique visual aesthetic.
Location Location Location
Modoc is a small town in east central Indiana, about an hour east of Indianapolis. I found out about the place from a high school friend whose photography club made a trip there last year. The property where the cars reside has become overgrown with plants and weeds in many places, making it difficult to walk around and get clear shots of some of the vehicles.
While the overgrowth did make for some interesting arty shots like the ones shown above, much time was spent bending weeds out of the way, with the focus becoming more about capturing smaller sections and details on the vehicles.
A pleasant surprise was the richness and intricacy of paint and rust patterns on vehicle hoods and side panels, as well as shattered windshield and door glass.
All in all, while offering a bit of a challenge at times, Modoc provided some rich rewards by taking time to discover the many hidden treasures.
Undertaking the shorter three-hour excursion to Modoc first offered the opportunity to learn and set goals for the second trip to Annandale, MN, about 45 min northwest of Minneapolis. This is about an eight-hour trip direct for me from central Illinois, but we added an hour by first traveling to Stevens Point, WI so my wife could visit with relatives there while I traveled on to Annandale to explore nearby French Lake Auto Parts (FLAP). FLAP goes by the nickname of Junktown, USA and houses one of the largest inventories of cars and parts in the country. The majority of my time there was spent exploring "The Yard" of classic cars organized by era, make and model.
The walk leading into this area was interesting in itself, with displays of individual parts and accessories for sale.
Being a commercial enterprise, FLAP was better organized and maintained and organized than Modoc, with cars neatly arranged in rows side-by-side, and minimal weed growth around them. I was better able to capture entire vehicles and vehicle groupings, as well as a variety of details and paint/rust/glass patterns. It was a bit overwhelming in terms of the number of cars, but that's a good problem to have, and by the end of my trip I had learned to quickly scan for the types of things I was looking for. The greater amount of cars also provided opportunities to capture a variety of interior shots as well as exterior.
Chrome ornaments and typography provided another fertile set of interesting things to explore.
All in all, FLAP was everything I hoped for and more in terms of the amount and wide variety of imagery. Well worth the long drive. A shout out as well to the friendly staff there.
I Like My Style
As mentioned in the intro, the source images captured on these trips and the resulting artworks helped to further develop and cement a visual aesthetic that is being cultivated with the mashup work, and inspired the title of this post. Junk cars and old planes provide rich fodder for my interests in line, texture, finding beauty in decay, and exploring boundaries between reality and painterly abstraction. And the more I do, the more I understand about what I'm after as well as creating a unified style across all the work.
The painterly abstraction part of this harkens back to previous analog work in painting and drawing, work that should also now ramp back up again with the rental of some dedicated studio space for myself and my wife in a nearby town. I'm looking forward to seeing how the photography and digital artwork affect possible new directions there. Watch this site for more to come in that regard, and for further development of the Driven gallery as I continue to work through all the newly acquired images.
