D'oh!
Some sort of mishap ... ? This project took on unexpected life the other day when recalling that I had a very badly damaged vintage 1950s space car by Gilmark Toys that I had wanted to re-purpose for an artwork. We'd had on one of those confounded "Heavy Machine Rescue" shows on, with tow truck guys pulling tractor trailers out of the snow in 2 degree weather.
What fun, my dad loves the stuff so whatever. Just happened to have the thing in my hand about six minutes later when recording some video. Added boing effects to suggest the light bulbs switching on.
Click here to open video in a new window for fullscreen view options.
That works. Not very fond of the shows but need good ideas for absurd situations. Like pulp science fiction artworks with a sly sense of humor that push on social satire. More about my thoughts on the Heavy Rescue shows in the video clip below.
The artwork as it had been plotted out, minus a space ship suspended by wire to help fill the sky area. Painted Marx space tank rolling down a crater to meet up with a painted Marx astronaut who is out of scale to his ride. Nice idea, but what of it? The rule is that the painting has to be as cool as what goes in the box, so the painting had a long way to catch up, including devising a more interesting way to suggest a crater. Found other things to occupy myself with until a need to tackle those items set in.
On a technical angle most of the boxes I use are on the order of four inches & fill up quickly. Unless the toy pieces are proportionally larger as well these end up being mostly empty air.
Box was a cheese gift crate from our late great Uncle Michael, 10 x 20 x 7 inches deep. For now the bottom of this one is bare, with a little gap between the slats making up the box side. Which for now is bare but will likely have a flat layer of crackle paste applied with little crater sections. Over which goes about four layers of a matte gel medium to seal it down and protect the crackle for table or shelf display. I started painting onto the bottoms presuming display on walls and not wanting just bare wood. The undersides began representing what's on the other side of the planetoid, which would be more of the planet.
Painting is still at only at a suggestive state, much layering to do including the sky. The planet forms accrete over time, for a box this size probably 8 weeks of on/off work seen here at about week two. The "crater" a mass of bare plasticine which is to be crackle pasted over and decorated with some of my hand painted space rocks. The end result isn't meant to be a scale model diorama but an other-wordly place inhabited by the found object toy forms.
I always let the painting spill over onto the side. The goal ends up being nine small paintings (top, bottom, sides out, sides in, main panel, floor and sky) each worthy on their own which intersect at 90 degree angles in a box form. For now the box forms are found but I do envision a range made of self-made boxes created to specific dimensions. This one was handy and had special attachment given its source. Makes it a more personal project to develop. It's Uncle Michael's box, or would be.
The tank as it came into my care, 1978 or 1979 pressing of a Marx Toys 1962 Moon Base series Space Dozer tank minus its bulldozer blade. Pressed in white for the Star Station Seven and Galaxy Command playsets which ended the Marx space toy era. Happen to know this one originated from a Galaxy Command set and was obtained as a bargain with some other Marx space vehicles. For now I only alter or modify toy pieces which are damaged, playworn, or inexpensive low quality copies of things I have multiples of,
No Vintage Space Toys Are Harmed In The Creation Of My Artwork
I wanted it to look like she just rolled off a Jawa scrap heap. Oily, battered and looking like it might have been on fire at some point. But still functions, including pressurized operator dome for use in a vacuum. Good for use as a mover vehicle using its original hitch assembly, cleverly hidden in most of these photographs.
The out of scale toy pieces originally chosen. Would only have worked if the tank could have been made to appear in the distance.
Better. Always time for an interview with the camera crew.
Fills the box better, but I still think some kind of space heliocopter or flying wrecker in the sky above the tank is important. Wire suspended in some way which won't come loose during shipment.
Are we having fun yet.
My dad loves this stuff. Has to do with how ordinary trained work guys are the heroes, asking no reward other than regular pay to do backbreaking work under dangerous, inhospitable conditions. Their only wish is for others to drive safely, and their only reward is getting to go home to their families at the end of the day.
Plus getting to be on television. Eleventh season underway! Video below has some thoughts on the idiom with an early version of my "commercial break" parody clip & a closer look at these Gilmark space cars.
Click here to open video in a new window for fullscreen view options.
Just lucky to be alive, really. Pilot at right in Iridescent Copper Light, that's his spouse in orange down below begging him to just come down off there and let the guys work. Embodied by alien cyborg creations fabricated by LP Toys at their Lik Be Plastics & Metals factory in Hong Kong.
Specialists from Giant Plastics of Hong Kong undertaking a damage control assessment. I get aircraft hull out of the design more than Flash Gordon rocket ship.
Piece was acquired in this condition for a few dollars more. Missing is the left tailfin and engine assembly. Still a handsome craft, had been tempted to try sawing off the remaining tailfin. Current scheme is to paint it with an iridescent stainless steel acrylic base with pearl glazing. Make it look like she re-entered the atmosphere a few times.
With a complete specimen in blue. Fabricated by Gilmark Toys at their New York City plant starting in 1952, others elsewhere may have continued later. But by 1960 these toy visions began to be replaced by NASA era vehicles, and manufactured in soft unbreakable plastic kids could drop a few times.
Always wondered if that wasn't a clever design strategy by Gilmark et al as a marketing ploy to sell more units: Keep em fragile, cheap, and easy to replace.
Pretty sure it's intended as a ground vehicle, but after STAR WARS it didn't matter what your ship looked like any more. It flew.
You would step out of its way, see.
That too.
All plastic design, two moving parts. One fixture of adhesive for the engine exhaust ports, four parts in all including hull. Assembled in random variations of red, yellow and blue parts as seen by my eyes.
Sold out of counter bins at Woolswoth’s and dime stores for maybe fifteen cents, two for a quarter. Probably just as many ended up in landfill once the 1950s space toy fad died out. Intact specimens will now run $30 -$90 (shipped) depending on scarcity of color combo, which is relatively affordable to the novice collector like myself -- Yellow hull with red wheels and blue engines being the as-yet unclaimed prize example. But I've seen it.
Now safely back in its bubbles & polybag with the other fragile hard plastic space vehicles in my stash. We'll look at them more soon! Am pretty much done buying stuff unless it's a score. Content to enjoy what I have and figure out how to make art with it. And for this kind of material it's use as a photo subject for works like the one below, which would make a dynamite painting when traced onto a larger surface.
The toy pieces utilized for the work with orange guy standing on US quarter for scale. All relatively small in size including some painted ziplock bag zips to serve as equipment boxes. Might switch figures for some painted with the safety suits of the rescue guys in mind, have plenty to spare. Need to simulate wreckage of the Gilmark ship as well, and all the painting for the box. I work slow these days, should be done with it by ... August?
Still banished to the space tank for losing his cool when they broke for lunch.
Nice composition for a painting. More soon.
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