Question: What Subject Matter Will Go On Your Custom Van's Airbrush Mural?
In the ’72 Dodge Tradesman Junkyard Find earlier this week, I referred to the iconic custom-van airbrush mural with “jousting knights battling Aztec kings in a zebra herd at the Mars Base.” All of those elements were seen on the flanks of plenty of Chevy Vans and Econolines back in the 1970s (though you didn’t often see more than one per mural), and— now that we’ve got the benefit of nearly 40 years of hindsight— we can think about what could be done today with the art form of the custom van.
Unfortunately, my custom-van project is a window-equipped Dodge Sportsman, so I can’t get any serious airbrush work done to it (I will get plenty of pinstriping, of course). If I ever get a windowless “molester van,” however, I think I’d go for a mural combining science-fiction and low-rider-style Aztec motifs, complete with gold leaf on the helmets of the astronauts/Aztec warriors, all done in super-pneumatic pinball-machine-backglass style. How about you?
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Coco Chanel is quoted as saying "Elegance Is Refusal".However,being born poor,she never refused anything.Diana Vreeland though,took that & ran with it.But this is full size van murals ,so what do they know? Anyways,you mentioned backglass vignettes,well why not use the windows,instead of the body,for, dare I call them,Muralees? I'll throw a few ideas out-How's about Thomas Kincaide meets Raymond Pettibone? Since the autopsy,we all know the profound impact Valium had on Mr.Kincaide's artistic vision.It could be combined to take a bit of the edge off those uptight & stingy,Pettibone/Ginn Bros(From what I've heard.). Or perhaps an erotic twist on the mural friendly style of Socialist Realism? A little bit Alberto Vargas,a little bit Tom of Finland.Add a little street style and it'll be Lil'Kim Jong Illin' meets Fat Joe Stalin. $,quarter,quarter,nickel-Peace,etc.
The first thing that popped into my mind was this: http://brandonbird.com/signifier_signified.html (Actually, Brandon Bird is a rich vein for people looking for the right image.)