I had a letter from Steve Brown about a bike tour he’s just done  with his partner, Zoe Xue, an urban designer from China.

Here’s Steve.

And  Here’s Zoe.

I first met Steve some years ago when he was working with Scott Dickason at EVs, developing electric bicycles for the postal service.

We made a film together about the excellent hill climbing  qualities of the EVs E  bikes, choosing a famous climb in the Dandenongs for demonstration  purposes.

I was tricked into being part of that demo!

Hmm, the film’s had 19,000 views. Not bad!

Then, Steve went off on his own and formed Niubike.

He was writing to me now about the exceptional lightness of one of the E bikes he’s offering, the eCoda which is only 17 Kilos, very light for an E bike though laughable for a racer of course.

Here’s the eCoda.

What looks like the water bottle is apparently the Lithium battery. He rode this E coda on the tour I’m going to tell you about whilst Zoe rode  the heavier more conventional, ETU (pron. E two)  you see here.

Note the voluminous panniers and the battery behind the seat post on her bike

The ride was in Victoria,  from Wangaratta to Bright via Beechworth.

It’s called, The Murray to Mountains Rail Trail

The trip took them five days, riding very leisurely, and covered about 250 Kms.

I’m pleased to be able to start this report with a photo from Wangaratta, circa 1922,  which shows two bikes of the era.

This photo recalls  that bikes were once important rural transport as you can discover in that excellent book, the Bicycle in the Bush, by Jim Fitzpatrick

T’was a  very wet  1922 day in Wangaratta,  it seems, with a very patient horse standing  there.

(Thanks to Museumvictoria for photo)

The town  still has  charm it’s nice to see.

The ride was mostly along the famous rail trails bike paths laid on former country rail lines.

Old rail lines make great bike paths since trains don’t like steep gradients and nor does the average touring cyclist.

Why did Steve and Zoe  go electric when  thousands of riders do this trail  under their own steam?

Well, because Steve sells E bikes, and because he’s come to believe that the E bike is a good way to get people who think they are past riding, back on bikes.

Providing exercise with a bit less pain, you could say.

This  rail trail they rode, for example, can be hard for the older rider.

It does have some gradients,  like here,  for example,  between  Everton and Beechworth.

That could be enough to discourage the less fit.

Another good reason for having a bit of help was because, to quote Zoe, “the headwinds were shocking”

Riding into a wind,  can be worse than any hill since it’s like a hill without end.

An E bike nicely  tames head winds.

Indeed,  it’s like having one’s own  gentle tailwind all the time.

This is probably why many Dutch folks ride E bikes, esp. older ones, the headwinds being famously fierce in the low countries.

The small motors,  just 200 watts,  pull the teeth out of the head winds and make the trip much more pleasant, freeing the cyclists  to enjoy the scenery…

…both wet and the dry.

Also,  the curiosities like this novel mail box,  an obvious homage to the style of passing traffic.

Along the way,  former railway stations have become shade and rest spots, quite nicely done,  I think .

A water tank and loos add to their practicality.

Steve and Zoe report finding only one cafe directly on the trail.

It was  at the curiously named, but nice to say, Porepunkah.

I wonder if it gets tedious, waiting for bikes to stop at the Rail Trail Cafe, Porepunkah?

Part of Steve’s touring E bike strategy was to convert a regular lightweight bike trailer to carry 60 Watt 36 volt  solar panels.

With strong sunlight, Steve tells me that this provides almost perpetual motion for his bike, the eCoda….

…..as well as for this  rolling billboard of his product line.

I wonder if the trailer with solar panels was  really necessary?

With both bikes  enjoying a range of 40kms at least on a charge, and  the camping spots generally having power to replenish the batteries, why bother with the solar panel?

Well,  the trailer’s usefulness is clear, carrying the camping gear when you see how much they have.

And having the tiny 200 watt motor to help pull that load  must be nice.

Knowing too that you can camp without power, still run a lap top, charge a phone….

…..Or just enjoy the natural show of lake Sambell.

And the solar trailer has other unexpected merits.

These are  so promising  that I’m telling Steve I think there could be  a market for such solar  trailers.

Firstly, they make an excellent table when camping, the surface being tough enough to take whatever you want to put on it

And here’s something nobody’s thought of yet. With the  the trailer, you can  fossick and stock up  as you go.

Along the trail in the picturesque towns,  there are many  interesting produce purchasing opportunities.

For instance,  here they are approaching Milawa

where there is a colourful cheesery…

….The Milawa Cheese factory.

Perhaps you’d love to take one of those home, but how to carry it without a trailer?

Maybe you’ve  noticed an initiative called, Pedal to the Produce.

But how could you lug a large cheese  with you in a wicker basket like that for several days?

Or how could you drop  by the Pennyweight Winery…

….and pick up a couple bottles of their famous drop….

… Without a nifty power assisted trailer to carry the load?

That seems to me to be the  great unrealized advantage of Steve’s trailer, the ability to return to our hunter-gather phase  whilst on the rail trail.

Now,  you can bemoan this  plug for yet more consumerism.  Yet I’m sure you like the idea of thriving country businesses selling wholesome produce to cyclists like you.

Anyway , the possibilities of stocking up are rich  and varied  near the Murray to Mountains rail trail.

In Beechworth, for example….

….still open late, they found the honey pot.

and like Pooh bear, stocked up with a jar or two .

Approaching  Bright, it was another story

The alpine town,  famous for its stately avenues

was where they struck trailer trouble. The solar panels came loose.

But at Crispy hardware and Timber,  with the help of Zack, they managed to fix the loosened panels   just before Crispy closed.

To wrap the story up,  Zoe reports that the food was great and reasonably priced at the  Alpine Gate Cafe in Myrtleford.

And the fish and chips were excellent at the Ageing Frog in Beechworth.

As was the coffee at the Beechworth Bakery where some of the staff waved them on their way.

I would have loved to have ridden with them though if I did.  I would have  practiced CCD.

That stands for creative civil disobedience meaning there’s no way I would have worn a helmet out there in the fresh air, traffic non existent.

No way with the chance of  a head injury being  about about one in 2 million or the same as  getting a meteorite up your nose.

Indeed,  if this was the Northern Territory, you  could ride legally without  a helmet on such a trail,  as I recently discovered  and showed in the film, Darwin Shows the Way

That’s as it  should be, helmet choice, that is.

One can only hope, as more and more visitors from overseas discover this great trail, that they’ll point out  how stupid is our compulsory helmet law, how  out of step with the rest of the world it is, and  that change will come.

And then one will ride with the breeze in one’s hair as nature intended.

That’s an example of my Bicycle art.  celebrating the beauty of the body on the bike.

Who know,  one day my bicycle art might be there for the two wheeled hunter gatherers  to discover along to trail in some gallery or eatery.

If you want to visit my Bicycle art gallery, go here. http://bit.ly/pl3UqN.

Boy , they were tough in those days, the gold miners the shearers, the people of the bush.

As we glide around in cushioned comfort,  we have no idea of the the difficulty people once had in just moving around in this vast landscape of ours.

My awakening comes from Jim Fitzpatrick’s great book, The Bicycle and the Bush.

I’ll pass on some titbits  from Jim’s story after posting my special offering of the day, photographs of Gwalia., once the second largest gold mining town in Western Australia.

Its mine, The sons of Gwalia,  was run in the early days by Herbert Hoover, later to become the US president.

These pics of silent  Gwalia  came to me out of the blue from Tim Burns.

The town of Gwalia  is now an open museum.

It was abandoned  on the 21st of December 1963,  the day three trains came from Kalgoorlie to take away the 1500  residents, their jobs all gone with the closing of the Sons of Gwalia gold mine.

Here,  you see the last trains on the last day. This photo and the other historic ones.  come from the Leonora and Gwalia historical museum website

But from my point of view, equally interesting as any train, is what’s against the wall of this abandoned house.

Yes, that right , a jumble of rusty bike frames.

Sadly ,  as we’ve come to expect,  the bike always seems to be left in  the shadows when it comes to transport history.

Far more interesting apparently is  the steam tram which ran the three Kms. between Leonora and Gwalia when Gwalia was the mine site,  and Leonore, the place you lived.

Gradually Gwalia became a town too.

Here’s  the double decked steam tram enjoying pride of place on the historic site..An interesting beast, I must admit

But when it came to getting around the early goldfields, the humble bike was probably equally or even more important.

It cost almost nothing to run once purchased. It did not have to be fed or watered, and in that scorching place, water could cost a fortune.

Water  was up to a shilling a gallon on the goldfield in WA in the 1890′s, Jim’s book tells me.   That would make it more expensive than Scotch whiskey today.

Julius Price running camels at the time,  reports;  “my kindly feeling went down to a very low ebb as I stood there, watching gallon after gallon of water  (then at four pence a gallon)  disappear down the apparently insatiable throat of the animals. ” (P. 94)

Some indication of  the abstemious bike’s importance can be discovered here, as we view a  complete bike hanging on a Gwalia  fence.

Can you spot what I’m getting at in terms of clues as  to this bike’s importance, something we don’t have today?

This bike sports a registration plate! They were officially kept kept track of apparently, a fee to use one,  perhaps.

And bikes were not just personal transportation around the gold fields.

They also carried the  mail as I showed in my last post,  and were used for doing deliveries.

Perhaps it’s  in the window of this shop…..

…..that this delivery bike now sleeps today, careless of passing time?

How tough was it on a bike in those days?   (all info. from Jim’s book)

In 1904,  there  were 16,000, kms.  of roads in Western Australia of which 62% were cleared only,  and 25% formed only.

Most of the time you were riding  not on roads at all,  but on sand,  in mud, over stone,  on railroad tracks,  even along the telegraph line.

And,  if you were really lucky,  you pedaled your fixie on the pads, the narrow and very smooth paths trodden down by camels.

What roads their were,  were often cut into deep ruts by wagon teams so that you were; “looking  at harder work (trying to stay upright on a bike) than ever befell a human being” as one rider  exhaustedly reports.

Riding on corrugations, often thanks to early cars and the way they ribbed the tracks. “would shake your eyeballs out.”

Sand was the worst surface and it was all over the country.  “Sand, sand was everywhere . It rose in a fine impalpable dust which made the nostrils and throat feel as if on fire.” Tom Coleman 1898. (p.104)

(photo, Bicycle and the bush)

“sand caused more walking, pushing sweating and swearing than any other factor in rural Australia. “  (p.104) Yet sandy areas were frequently crossed,  and at impressive speeds .

For instance,  those bike post messengers, crossed the sand plain between Southern Cross and Coolgardie in WA (177 kms.) in 12 hours.

Boy,  were they tough,  or were they just tough, those early riders? What would they make of our cushy rides today?

Caked mud  was also a nightmare . “Until a path was worn through after the rains.. a jolting ride  was  the result, which according to Murif,  (a famous distance rider) was like cycling up and down a stairway with the stairs of unequal heights and width, blindfolded…..  Destructive to both machine and rider“

And  so what happened to those heroic bikes?

They’ve ended up in Gwalia as  part of fences.

Thus still,  they  lend some strength to the human agenda , fencing this abandoned town which you can now visit .

Both these photos. by John Lovett (splashing paint blog)

Rest well,  old frames,  so sturdy in your day!

And thanks to Tim Burns for telling your story in pictures  as no one else has thought to do before .

 

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve got my hands on a fascinating book, The Bicycle and the Bush.

It’s about the history of cycling in early Australia,  about how  the bike  was used as transport in cites and country, much more than we know.

 

I found this copy online and paid   a whopping $60 for it,  but no regrets so far.

Published in 1980, it’s by an American, Jim Fitzpatrick,  who’d moved to Australia. Jim had worked for the peace corps, as an urban planner,  and taught at Aust. universities.

Here’s Jim from the back flap. (All photos are from Jim’s book)

Along the way, Jim was intrigued to discover that in the late 19th century,  the bike become the vehicle of choice, the liberating means of personal transport in Australia.

Its use quickly spread from the cities  to the outback where  shearers, gold miners, linesmen,  all  traveled  huge distances on the new invention.

I’m not far into the story  as yet. But already I’m  astonished at what I’m reading.

Bikes  took off like a bush fire, becoming big sellers soon after the invention of the safety version in the 1880′s.

The tens of thousands if bikes coming into Australia in the mid 1890′s happened soon after  the invention of the  so-called, safety bike.

These replaced the dangerous  ordinaries,  or penny farthings,  which had also been rapidly taken up here,  but usually by men and mostly as a sports machine. Ordinaries were little use das transport.

The safety bike, which both men and women could ride in comfort at speed and over distances, change all that .

And as  tough Australians began to ride them huge distances over terrible roads, their fame  of these reliable bikes spread .

So great was the demand here  that  the big US and English and European  manufacturers had their models in Australia  just  months after they were available in their markets at home.

Interestingly, bikes which did well in the rough Australian conditions were sometimes shipped home to be used in advertizing to prove the model’s ruggedness.

Prices came down fast so that by the turn of the century, you could get a pretty   good bike for  three pounds and change

Here’s a palatial bike shop in Collins st. Melbourne, selling German Wertheim bikes in 1896.

Advertizing  made good use  of the many intrepid  riders who crossed the country in  amazingly  short periods on the new bikes .

Mrs.Maddock, for example,  rode from Melbourne to Sydney in 9 days on what must  have been pretty  rough roads.

Moreover, her bike would have been a fixed wheel, meaning the pedals would spin wildly as she coasted down hill.

Fixed wheel bikes,  common even  into the 20th. century,  could not carry  much luggage behind . That area had to be kept free for a step at the back so that you could quickly climb off backwards if your “grid” got out  of control.

Bikes were the fastest way to travel. Over distances,  they easily beat horses and sometimes  even trains.

They were  also amazingly durable. Though cheap for a working man,  amounting to about 4 weeks wages,  they could be expected to last 20 years with almost no maintenance. And what needed to be done, most riders did themselves.

Before the car came along,  making  us soft and erasing all memory of the heroic bike, we were a tough and lean nation it seems, as were the bikes themselves

Sales teams proved how strong the classic  diamond frame of the safety bike was with stunts like this.

Here,  16 men stand on a plank solely supported by a single bike.

 

I’m going to love this book, enjoy finding out that bikes were  sometimes called jiggers, for example,   and grids, and that across  the country,  there were early moves  to make networks of paths for bikes which they called,  pads.

Not surprising  these were often ruined, torn up,  by horses and carts?

I’ve just found a great article, also  inspired by Jim’s book, which sums up this unknown early history so very well.

Other news. My bike art collection is growing. I’ve been doing more linocuts,  partly prompted by being invited to put work in an Xmas group show at the Bridget McDonnell gallery in Melbourne.

This is a real honor for the bike art,  and so I’d doing works specially for that show.

Co-incidentially, another art show here  in Sydney on German art called; Mad Square Modernity in German Art 1910-1937, war, has prompted me to go back to that dark and fascinating  period for some new bike themes.

Here are  two based on Berlin in the 1920′s  This one’s  called, The bikes wait for the Tram.

And this,  Wet and windy night , Berlin

Apart from that, the  debate about compulsory helmets rages on.

My position is that,  because comp. helmets cripple public bike schemes like the ones in Melbourne and Brisbane, and because  public bikes are  a  proven way to rapidly build up utility cycling, there must be a helmet  exemption for these bikes, a trial at least.

You can read the debate here.

You know, it’s telling that the word,  “helmet”,  is not to be found in the  index to Jim’s 1980 book. Apparently we go through all those  early years, never giving a thought to lids. No we’re obsessed by them

I close  my post with this great film on the helmet issue made by  Geoff McLeod of Sputnik films in  Brisbane . It’s gratifying that it’s jumped from 300 views on YouTube when I first saw it, to over 12,000 today

 

 

 

The title of an utterly facinating documentary I’ve just seen on our most loyal friend,  is actually, The Secret life of the Dog.

But the things I learned in this film, prompted me to think  deeper about bikes and our relationship with them. They are  another of our best friends, are they not?   So,  I tagged on, “and Bike”

In any case, stop reading this right now and rush to see this film on SBS. It’s now available but perhaps not for very long,  in their On-demand section. Here’s the link.

Now that you’ve seen it and probably agree with me that it’s superb, thought provoking and the rest, here’s the bike related thought it stirred  in me.

You remember  that we discover in the secret life that many of the traits dogs posess have been hard wired into their DNA through their assocation with us.

For example, they’ve learned to scan the human face, to read it’s emotions  intuitively in ways that no  dog related animal can do.

Thus a dingo, even if raised domestically,  wont follow our expressions,  our eye movements  for clues as to what to expect and nor will any other animal, even primates who you thought closer to us than dogs, didn’t you?

From the tiny  pekinese up to the  great dane, and all in between,  all dogs do this instinctively, this scanning.

Reading our faces, the progam suggrests,  began to be  bred  into the dog when the dog was fist domesticated as a  hunting partner.

I guess we fed those that had the trick, they survived more frequently,  and so the trait got selected  as favoring survival.

Back to bikes, Following the same idea, I’m sure  that constant and intence  assocation with the wheel over a very long time, has hard wired our love of this  useful round thing, into our natures.

The power, the  freedom, the fun, the adventure the wheles  brings us, are part of  our now DNA,  I reckon

The problem is that in recent times,  ever since the oil began to gush,  these wheels we love so dearly, been mainly hooked up to carbon buring engines  so that now we’ve an addiction resting  on an addiction.

Seems to me what we’ve got do to do,  whilst  admitting  the lock the wheel has on us, is  to shift our addiction from carbon powered to leg powered wheels.

Bicycle art can focus our attention.

If  things are hard wired because they aid our our survival, it’s clearly a good move to make this shift since in every way, the leg powered wheel, is better placed that the cabon one   to help us  survive in a waming and depleted world.

To  boost the idea of the switch as good, we need to think of the bike,  as not just transport,  but as a state of mind of the sort we need to have to get by.

Given the way the world has gone to excess at breakneck speed, excessive in consumption, excessive  in greed, excessive  in force, given that we’ve  developed grotesque  ideas of entitlement, the bike in every way,  by its very nature, it’s simplicity,  says. “Whoah there, mate!”

The bike is wheels with a message.

Sure,  we’re inveterate roamers, fetilizing our daily lives by being constantly on the move.

Well, leg driven,   we can still be mobile but at a speed which will contantly reference us back the the natural world with which  we have to harmonize or die.

By cutting down the speed of all  this restless movement of ours,  and by removing the car cocoon, we get back into touch with wind,  with sun, with rain,  not to mention with bodies shorn of blubber by the very scissors of  our legs

We’ll  smell again.  we’ll  see again , we’ll  smile again at those whose equally  restless paths we cross……… You get the idea.

I’ve just realized this line of thought is almost hand crafted for my friend Nicholas  Dow. Nic  rides a biker of course,  but also has a dog which runs beside him everywhere he goes

I think I  should therefore shut up and pass this over to Nic, and yourselves,  for a reality check.

 

 

 

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

On my last post I told you about a superb PBS documentary, about 2o mins. long,  on the public bikes of Paris.

This film has inspired a series of of linocuts which are quite experimental for me.

I mean that  they are more free, more broken , more scratchy,  than my usual style.

Here is one of the most broken, featuring the very distinctive chain guard of the Velib, curves that intrigue me.

Linocuts are tricky because once a cut is made, it  comes up glaring white, accusingly, whether  right  or  wrong.

I’ve  decided not to worry about that and to cut much more freely and accidentially than usual.  This next is the most extreme, again a Velib.

The 20,000  Paris velibs sometimes  ride on secluded paths in beautiful settings but also in heavy traffic.

Here”s the finished version of the  linocut shown last time. I didn’t like it then. But  I’ve decided not to scrap it.

The car is too explicit. I wanted it to  be more vague,  more menacing. I just could not resist carving out  the details of the BMW grille.  It’s so hard to stop oneself, to remember that less is more.

But the rider, I like,  as he flees the car.

This traffic scene is much better.

And as for vague and menacing, I like this next one a lot.

I like to think it’s the Bois du Boulonge, but it’s not. That’s a stand of Velibs on the left and they don’t make it to the Bois I’m sure.

These  prints are all badly photographed, the light coming from one side.

I’ll do them better for the gallery web site.  http://situp-bike-art.com.

Now,  the urgent thing is to make contact with the film makers and thank them for the inspiration. For the film link, look at  the last post.

I’m quite persuaded that the Velibs are the most beautiful of public bikes.

 

 

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

I’ve been have a great deal of fun with my bike art recently. Progress comes through chance so often, doesn’t it?

In this case,  change let me  find a superb short documentary on the public Bikes of Paris, the Velibs.

You must see this film both for the content , and the superb shooting of some of the 20,000 Velibs in Paris just as winter is approaching.

Go to this site, click on webcasts at the top of the page. Then choose Paris, Velo liberte.

For me, there was an added thrill. I realized that here were the images I need to celebrate public bikes till now missing in my art collection.

Here was my inspiration and to show you what can come from this, Here’s my first image.

 

Someone is riding a Velib along the Seine at sunset or is it sunrise?

Of course I’m pleased with it, even a bit stunned.

It’s a rubbing, meaning that I coat the whole sheet of paper with oil paint and then rub back to white.

Probably even more significant in terms of where this might lead me,  was to realize that many of the memorable images  in the film were of the Velibs in heavy Parisian traffic.

Normally,  I’m repelled by such images. In the hundreds of pieces of bike art I’ve done,  I’ve never show a bike in traffic, and never a car.

But seeing this film, I realized a key part of the story the film tells  was that the Velibs are operating reasonably safely in the snarl of Paris traffic, and that this is important.

Important,  because it confirms that these stately sit up bikes are safer.

Firstly,  because you see better and are seen better, but also because drivers treat them with greater courtesy.

Ive always claimed that, and this film confirms it.

So, for the first time I felt  ready to show bikes in traffic in a stylized way of course.

Here is the lino cut which resulted, and pleased I am with it too. It’s really a breakthrough for me, showing a bike and cars together and not puking.

A bit intoxicated with all this progress,  I started this morning to do a second traffic scene,  Velib inspired.

I thought I’d show you how one does a lino cut.

Here, I’ve drawn my image in grease pencil on the lino block which happens to come green.

I know what I want in terms of the image.  I want the bike to be strong and yet  pursued by the menacing BMW.

I want the elegance of the Velib too.  They are the best looking public bikes in my opinion. That mean stressing especially the distinctive curve of the handlebars.

I work on the drawing some more. This is the key stage. If the drawing is not good, you can never fix it later since one the block is cut, that’s it.

Now, I’ve  got the menacing feel  want.

I”m also falsely contented. With the pencils one can get a soft result as you see here

But when I cut, that will be lost and I’m forgetting that it might not look nearly this good.

But I do have one trick up my sleeve. I discovered doing the first lino,  that by heavy cross cutting of the road area , I can make not only interesting patterns,  but energy lines as well.

I start to cut , trying for  this again.

First,  I cut on one direction with my V shaped knife, the size of a pen.

Then, I  cut my road across these lines. Oh, I should have explained that first I cut around the bike and the cars.

It looks a mess but I’m hoping this will make the bike stand out against a very energetic background.

I also succumb to the temptation cut cut some details into me cars when I know that is probably a mistake.

Why do I do it then?  The passion to describe and to control by description.

Now,  I ink the block and am quite pleased with this hint of how it will print.

On the side you see the roller.

Now,  to put on the paper for  the first print, an exciting moment.

The fact that I can see the image through the rice paper is reassuring.

I’ve been rubbing over the paper with the back of a wooden spoon. .

Now,  for the first print. Here it is!

There are some things I like about it.

But then, I cut some more and made it worse so this one will go in the rubbish and I’ll  start again.

The image idea is good, of that I’m sure.

On the weekend of the 24th, the Saturday and Sunday, the bike art will again be on display. About 50 pieces. This time at the Gosford Regional Art gallery. More details on the bike art web site

Http://situp-bike-art.com

One the afternoon of the 24th, around 2 pm I’ll be there to explain things like this printing process.

 

 

 

 

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

Life is full of usually delightful surprises when one’s obsession is bikes.

I have  three to tell you about.

1. Surprise from Serge Huercio.

2. Surprise from Mikael Colville- Andersen.

3. Surprise from Bec in  San Francisco.

4. From Nick Baron and lastly from

5. from Wade Wallace

If you’ve read the blog before you know that I’ve turned to art as a way to get across the idea of the beauty of cycling.

I had my show at the Tap gallery and will lots of help from Katya, Leslie and Gill, it went very well. Sold lots of stuff. Just covered my costs which was great.

Since then I’ve expanded a bit, first adding some color.  At the show, most  works were sepia.

I’m still doing rubbings,  but they have some color sometimes  For example.

and this.

 

The second image shows that I’ve added another theme. I’m no longer confining myself to sit up cycles and their riders.

I call  the new theme,  circus cycling even the main exponent, the guy who’s inspiring me, calls it,  Bicylette Artistique.

His name is Serge Huercio. I think he’s French. And here is the video I stumbled on which got me excited enough to add this  topic to my art.

You  have to run in about 30 seconds to come to Serge in Action. You’ll  see what excited me.

Not only is he an amazing acrobat,  but his  stage rider has a  well defined character which is both touching and amusing.

Indeed,  he reminds me of Jacques Tati. You remember M. Hulot’s holiday amongst other classics?

So,  inspired by Serge,  I began  a series based on his postures. One is above. Here are two more.

 

At the end of his film clip,  is a hard-to-read email address.

So I wrote to Serge, using all the possible address variants. I asked him if he minded me using his art for my art.

I told him that I’d like to give him copies of what I was doing,  etc.

I hardly expected a reply but,  such is the magic of the internet,  that this morning there he was in my inbox.

He said he was  delighted to know what I was doing.  Photos were attached.

In his chatty letter, he marveled at coincidence. He’d  read my blog and discovered the frequent references to Copenhagen and our powerful blog friend based there, Mikael Colville-Andersen.

He had not heard of Mikael but now is going to invite him to his show. Seems to me it’s  something Mikael’s son might like.

I write to Wade from time to time,  urging him to write about utility cycling on his powerful blog.

But that is not his rermit and so not much luck. Now,  with Cadel’s amazing win at the Tour De France, I assumed that Wade would be even more focused on the sport side of cycling .

We’ll,  I almost fell over when I read his  recent piece.

Wade,  who has been adamantly pro compulsory  helmets ever since his blog  began, has changed his  opinion,  at least when it comes to public Bikes like Melbourne Bike Share

Having tried the Velibs in Paris , he’s come round to our way of thinking that for public bikes to work in Australia,  they need a special exemption.

Helmet choice must apply to them. Here’s Wade’s excellent piece.

It’s candily named, a change of tune. Good on you Wade.

A few days after writing to congratulate him,  and fearing he must be taking flack, I sent him  an excellent new Doco on the Paris Welibs,  film which shows how normal it is to use the system without helmets.

Here is the link to the film . Go to the section on Transport and click on Paris , Liberte.

 

 

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

On Friday this week, Cadel Evans will make a victor”s ride though Melbourne.

This would be a good occasion for the media to ask why it is that we are so strong in sports cycling, but are far behind Europe and Asia when is comes to utility cycling, that is using bikes as everyday transport.

Whilst Cadel’s win is great, (I  too was hooked on the coverage)   we really need to find out why we seem unable to take bikes seriously as transport.

You only have to go to the Federal Govt’s Green Vehicle  Guide for proof of that. . The bike,  the greenest wheels of all,  is not listed as a vehicle.

Whilst you do see many more bikes being used  for shopping and  commuting, especially around Melbourne where in Yarra they are up to 10% of traffic  in the mornings, we still lag far behind and are denying ourselves a real asset.

Not only that,  we  deny the chance for life to be more pleasant and more beautiful.

Photo by Marius.

It would make the point and be quite stunning if Cadel at the end of his ride on his race winning machine,  was to hop off and  and cut a few curves for the cameras on one of Melbourne’s 500 public bikes.

It would be stunning  because people just don’t put the two realities together, and don’t realize that those public bikes are languishing in part,   because of sports domination .

Racing and leisure cycling take almost all the oxygen in this country when it comes to two wheels.

Media tip, look into the way that the introduction of Comp. helmets acted as a selective herbicide, killing off one sort of cycling in favor of another.

Since sports  cycling does not fit very well with motor traffic,  much of the bike news is about conflict and hostility, not to mention accidents.

Cyclists are forced, more and more,  to  mount cameras on their helmets to record hostile drive behavior. I’ve never heard of this in Europe.

Without pointing the blame finger,  something is seriously out of kilter

No, it’s  not like this in Europe where transport bikes have their accepted place on the roads as well as enjoying generous infrastructure spending on separated  bikeways.

Here’s how  beautiful the a city bike landscape can look. Indeed here’s what to aim for.

Just  flip though the major cycling magazines as put out by Bicycle Victoria and Bicycle NSW, note the domination of Lycra and carbon fibre machines, and you’ll see what I mean  in terms of  the different culture which has grown up here. .

The classic  practical European bike equipped,  as a vehicle,  hardly gets a look in, though there is a new Magazine, Treadlie, which is working to redress this.

Cadel could further  kick off the necessary debate  if he were to be true to how these public bike are ridden everywhere else, (in approx. 140 countries)  and ride without  helmet.

Of course  he won’t. He’d  be risking a $154 ticket for one thing,   but he’d be making a key point.

Public bikes, indeed the whole utility bike movement,  have been held back by our compulsory helmet laws.

Melbourne bike share for example, limps along with about a tenth of the usage of a sister scheme in Dublin where the same number of bikes,  around  500,  are in constant use  with few helmets in  sight and yet a safety record we can only dream of

Just this last week the British Medical Journal has come out  with a survey of it members, the overwhelming majority of whom opposed comp.

Barcelona which has a very successful bike share scheme, the Bicing , is revealed to be actually saving lives even though few riders there   wear helmets,   by cutting  city pollution.

Image from Fotographia- Barcelona

By the way,  helmet Freedom.org where I  found this photo, is a great new blog dedicated to debating our helmet dilemma. 

Their motto; Helmets are good. Helmet laws are not.

We are owners of a failed experiment and Cadel’s victory is a good time to take a look at why .

On the art front, I continue to tidy after the successful show at the Tap gallery, even more convinced that art  images of the sit up bike, can help people to see bikes and their riders differently.

I’ve been  experimenting  with adding colour to some of my lino cuts,

inspired  by discovering the great work of the Grosvenor school of Lino cutting in London in the thirties .  It’s a  tricky craft,  adding color , but I think I’m going to like this new direction.

Here, I’m adding two colors, trying different combinations.

And this one, all the same orginal.

I’m interested in whether you think this is interesting of if you prefer the untouched Black and white seen here.

One Lino cut,  which was not good enough to put in the show, pleases me with some color added.

I print the black last, eager to see how the lines pull the colors together. Because registration is not very exact, each copy is different.

It’s so much fun, I’ve almost forgotten the debilitating shingles I’ve come down with, stress from the show, I guess.

In the meantime, I’m acquiring a few collectors around the world and the possibility that the message  behind the art will resonate widely .

Here’s  Ken in Canada, not only showing off how he’s framed to lino cuts but proving he’s the right sort of collector  by showing them with his 20 year old Gazelle  Premiur

That message in brief: The sit up bike is a superb presentational device for the human body.

Just as form follows function, looking good on a bike is a  product of adopting a delightful and health way of getting around, one whose  benefits we’ve  sadly overlooked..

 

 

(Courier Mail)

Now,  after a couple of  days,  as I watch the ABC and SBS predicting  about how Cadel’s his win will encourage kids….

(Telegraph UK )

I say, Thanks to  Cadel Evans for a very different reason.

 

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

I have an idea how  Cadel Evans great win, almost assured as I write,  can help utility cycling in Australia, but you’ll have to skip down to find it.

In the meantime, all our approval for an amazing effort on the part of this modest hero.

Well, the  art show, Nothing But Bikes, is over!  And what a wonderful time it’s  been, baby sitting my 61 pieces of  bike art for 2 weeks.

I have to thank the Australian newspaper for a great start..

Much as I dislike  the Murdoch papers for their climate change scepticism and seeming sabotage,  this photo below which  Alan Prike took for Helen Trinka’s very balanced story,   was very important for my  hopeful mood all during   the show

Somehow, it affirmed for  me that I was on the right track, moving forward with purpose, confidence, and a big idea.

That idea?

That, even as the hunched and bunched riders of the Tour De France dominated  the news..

 

 

 

…my stately sit up bike,  built not for speed,  but just  for getting around comfortably and safely, will have its day here in Australia  too.

Then, another idea came.

Sometime during the non stop coverage of the famous race, to which I became addicted,  I noticed how much  they were featuring the beautiful French countryside, the chateaus etc.

Amazing scenery that the riders were charging through,  no time to stop and savor

So came  this other idea.

How about….acknowledging that,  whilst the Tour de France is exciting, even amazing,  the race does little for the state of the planet and  the dire straits we are in environmentally.

Global warming  gives us no days off.

So,  to be progressive, tour organizers  in future should take some time to celebrate  these other bikes, the ones which  win no yellow guernsey,  but which do make a  quiet contribution to a carbon leaner planet.

Bikes and riders like these.

Next year, between stages,  they could honor these unseen and unsung heroes, the  folks who  use bikes as every day transport, no high tech stuff, no special clothes.

Just a bike, a person,  and a necessary journey

It would make for a  nice balance with all the usual race excitement.

I’m going to write to the Tour organizers with this suggestion, that they  feature everyday riders, every day in short vignettes, reminding us that bikes are also  transport

Will you back me up?

That’s for Europe. Now,  for us in Australia.

I’ve just taken in the fact  out that our very own Cadel Evans has  almost won the  2011 Tour, the first time ever for an Australian.

Surely,  this is even more reason that we  should urge this additional focus.

I mean,  how ironic it is that Australia,  now first in racing cycling,  is  last,  or near last,  in utility cycling.

Monday morning,   the french will go back to the 25,000 sensible share bikes, their Velibs in Paris, bikes  they can ride up that same Champs D’elisees that’s about to welcome Cadel Evans.

They will have the choice whether to wear a helmet or not,  as will the thousands of Aussie visitors also in Paris,  there to see his victory.

Adults  treated as adults. Whilst we……  can have no effective bike share scheme here, and and are treated as if we are all high risk racing cyclists when it comes to helmets.

Yes, we are great at winning medals.Not detracting from Cadel’s amazing achievement,  we should understand that making our cities bike friendly,  is the also an important  medal to be won.

I think I’ll write to Cadel as well,  or to Wade.

Wade Wallace has an important bike blog , Cycling Tips, carried by the other newspaper chain, Fairfax. No doubt Wade’s over the moon with the win.

In the past, he’s  told me he can’t cover utility cycling on his blog. No interest, he says,  sadly.  But how about this new angle I’m suggesting,  Wade?

Back to the Tap. It was sad to pull the show down, to expose the outlined bikes we’d  added as unifying patterns on the Tap Gallery walls.

Frustrating too, to  find how hard they were to cover over. The wall on the left has already had two masking coats and the bikes still show

It’s as if they are lingering ghosts. not wanting to leave which how I feel as well.

Many thanks to Tap’s Leslie Dimmick for having faith in the show.

Here,  Gill Charlton and Art Teacher, Fiona Nevin,  help paint them out

But why talk of that when there’s so much to tell about the mid show party and the sales?

Sunday, 10th  July, about 60 people rolled up on bikes and on  foot (if they came by car,  they hid it.)

 

That’s Saskia Howard  (Sydney Cycle Chic ) pointing at me. She’s posted some  great photos (like the ones above and below) of riding to the show.

And  here’s an influential bunch. On the left, Paul Martin, Brisbane activist who’s come down specially for the show. Here’s the video he made of his day in Sydney .

Paul’s video’s   worth a look especially to see the huge potential Sydney has to welcome bikes if only we could  do a few more basic things, like complete Clover Moore’s Bikeways grid,  and get bike share up and running here

Next to him, glancing my way, is Nik Dow, who also came specially, but  from Melbourne . I appreciate their dedication

Last year, Nik, Paul, and I  staged a demo in Melbourne in favor of a helmet exemption for Melbourne Bike Share. We know that such an exemption would make Bike share possible here in  Sydney.

So says the manifesto of my show which I had pinned up

Then,   in the same photo, is Sydney City Councillor,  John McInerney who gave a short talk,  and the Architect, Caroline Pidcock who also spoke.

John is keen to get bike share here too. Maybe the Tour De France  win will help in some unexpected way

I was actually too muddled to do much photographing that Sunday. It all passed as in a dream.

As did the rest of the week with people stopping by to look and buy.

Here’s  my friend,  the great doco maker, David Bradbury . He’s  about to release a film on  director, Paul Cox,  called On Borrowed Time .

This was  with his favorite lino cut

Here too is  a clue as to what  prompts people to buy art.

We are all addicted to stories. If there is a story  attached to art….

I think my story of Cyclonica, the island paradise for bikes in the South Pacific,  hooked David .

This lino cut,  which at first sight, seems to have nothing to do with bikes, shows disgruntled riders, fed up with the war on our roads,  leaving town.

They’re taking the red eye flight to Cyclonica.

The plane, El Fugitivo, a DC3,  seen in the picture….

…leaves every Friday night  at 11. 30 pm from a secret location in the Blue mountains.

Once there,  you can join the bikes which fly around Cyclonica’s volcano,  like moths,  each evening.

Or ride around the  volcanic base on the bikes  you brought on the plane

Daytime, there is no car traffic on Cylonica.  Many people ride for minutes on end with their eyes shut, the  road verges being softly padded  for expected  falls,  and the native bird song, eyes shut , is   delightful.

No,  those are not cars in the distance,  but Mangos, the name Cyclonicans give their fast reclining bikes.

This is David Hembrow, one of Cyclonica’s oldest residents,  in his mango

If you are interested in going to Cyclonica, there’s  a mobile number to ring. And if the name’s too hard to remember you can use it’s other name.

SCHIERMONNIKSOOG

Back to the wrap up. It’s interesting what people buy and why,  when it comes to art.

I sold almost thirty works, which is apparently exceptional.

See if you can see any pattern to the sales.

No  mystery why this one, reaching for her purse,  was so popular. I could have sold it several times over.

The lino cuts,  which I thought would be the best sellers at around $300,  (framed)  came third behind the solar prints.

This was the most popular lino, Jumble of bikes

followed by this one, three out of the saddle, my first lino cut, actually.

The solar prints which sold? They all have an old fashioned,   etched,  feel to them which I suspect  helped.

These, mostly unframed, were really cheap at  $75 each. As my guru, Leonard  Mackovitch predicted,  they walked off the walls.

I’ll print more and sell them from my home studio, each a limited edition of 40

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leonard says they should be called,  unique prints because they  are each  subtly different from copy to copy.

What is the secret of selling?  When living in Quebec, I discovered the charm and mystery of the disappearing road.

Where is going you wonder? What’s around that corner?

Such images are very close to the core of life’s story, that of the journey

And removing the color, I’ve made use of this powerful image type more recently.

The unity of the theme has helped the show. .No one has done an art  show about this one type of riding before,( not that I know of)  the elegant sit up style.

This picture too which encapsulates that message,  Two women chatting, I could have sold several times.

Maybe the political message too has helped.

Many of us like causes, like trying to make the world a better place, and we quickly warm to a good idea for change.

Using bikes to reduce our carbon footprint,  is surely a very good idea and not mine of course.

Indeed, in the carbon tax debate now raging, I think the Govt has made a big mistake in focusing the whole drama on the so-called 500 big polluters, the big baddies.

We are all responsible and should all be challenged to cut down .

Riding a bike for short trips is a beneficial way to do so,  and should be passionately pushed by the Gillard Govt.

It would help her credibility as well, I feel.

Julia is continually  confronted with having lied about the Carbon tax before the last election. But a  bigger lie, one that’s  far more serious, goes on being told to soothe people.   That’s the message that  change from a carbon economy will be painless.

We know that this is not true and the Prime Minister misses a chance to mobilize our best instincts when she claims we wont be a  penny out of pocket.

She would be much more credible is she told us the truth. That it will hurt but not that much,  and there will plusses.

We are  one of the most obese, diabetic nation, s on earth. Riding bikes as transport, can  add ten years to our lives.  Bikes must be part of the debate.

That should be our cause now,  to bring  utility  bike riding to  front and centre stage. Even  the greens, Bob Brown, seems  to be unable to bring himself to say the B word. Crazy!

In the meantime, as I said, I’m moving the exhibition to my home studio at Avoca Beach, NSW

Here’s the entrance , the Gallery name’s  not yet up.  Katya is peeping out. It was her idea , this move.

You’ll be able to see how the works are done, have a glass of wine if you like ,and  buy something  if you like.

All this at Avoca beach, 1. hour 30 min. north of Sydney

But by appointment only . michael.rubbo@gmail.com

The TAP Gallery has a nice glow from the street. Makes you want to walk in.

I’ve been very late getting my bike shadows finished and finalizing the catalogue with prices.

All done,  Sue Abbott arrived and decisively bought the;  woman reaching for her purse. http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

You might recall Sue’s fame for having taken  on the authorities re  compulsory helmets after being fined for not wearing one in Scone

I made several films about her trips to court and now,  she tells me  she as she unlocks her new Gazelle, her purchase done..

That she’s back in court in a  few days.

And few weeks after that,   she’ll take the protest to Melbourne for  a mass ride against the helmet law.

Good luck, Sue.

 

We agree , she and I, that the comp.  helmets are  holding back our cycle  culture here, that because of them, lots of growth is not happening .

I’m particularly concerned that the laws mean   we can’t have functioning bike share schemes in Australia

I  argue  that these public bike schemes, like the Paris Velibs, the Boris Bikes in London, the Bixis in Montreai, the Bicings in Barcelona,  that all these new systems,  are  the turbo chargers of transport cycling.

They are the quick  way to get masses of non riders, people who cant  conceive  of themselves  using a bike as transport, (that’s the average Australian)  to just try and then, to like it.

That’s what’s happened overseas and it can happen here. But first,  we have to toss the helmet  albatross.

I think about this as the message of my show as I paint the final silhouettes behind the art.

 

 

 

 

The Guy at the end  agrees.

 

That’s Mikael Colville- Andersen.( Copenhagenize.com.)   who started both Sue and I thinking   about the negative aspects of com.  helmets

His key point is that they surround cycling with an unjustified   cloak of fear, and that the small danger  involved,  is nothing compared with the loss of having so many people put off cycling for life

Meanwhile,  both fortunately and unfortunately,  more pics are selling.

Fortunately,  since this campaign for helmet choice,   needs funds. Unfortunately,  in that I hate see my favorite works  go out the door.

Esp. this one which many wouldn’t look  at twice,  but which  I love.

It shows roof deck  parking for bikes  in Amsterdam .

And this one of two friends chatting,  based on a Copenhagen cycle chic photo.

 

Anyway, my fears of a fiasco are receding fast,  and I’m  looking forward to the party at 3 pm on Sunday at the Tap, 45 Burton st. Darlinghurst.

 

 

 

 

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

Sunday July 3rd.  we carried the 60 plus works into the Tap gallery, all beautifully framed…

Stored them in a corner….

….to be ready for the next  day,  our turn on the walls.

Monday the 4th of July. Katya nicely lettered the Show’s name in the free style we’d chosen, Nothing But Bikes

Whilst I began on the big bike silhouettes I felt would tie the small works together, as if bikes were throwing shadows.

There was  a moment of doubt on my part when I realized I’d bought no bike photographs  as prompts

“If you don’t know how to draw bikes  by now,” said Katya. “It’s quite hopeless”

There was no need to worry.  The big bike outlines  flowed   onto the walls as Gill Charlton, the third member the team,  followed behind,  adding touches of  perfection.

We hadn’t realized how nicely the shiny floors,  complimented the show.

To our favorites,  we gave pride  of place

 

 

The opposite walls have no bikes shadows.

I’m now thinking they are needed.

 

 

 

 

And so that’s   what I’m doing now .

This is a bike from above,  with an umbrella on the rack

…. the illusion that bikes throw shadows on the walls.

This superb Gazelle has been lent by Paul van Bellen of Gazelle Australia.

But we were all very pleased with yesterday’s hanging. Thanks Gill.

And thanks to  Katya Korolkevitch-Rubbo,  my wonderful partner. Both of us  tired but happy

Happy,  except for a letter in this  morning’s Sydney Morning Herald.

Letters to the editor writer, Russell Edwards take a swipe at our failure to build  fast train systems,  compared with Asian cities.

He points out that they build high speed train systems in Asia  in the time it takes us to plan to upgrade ours. Very true.

But then he takes  a further hit at Sydney,  which is putting in beautiful bikeways, as if doing this,  is   locking us into  a past the Chinese have left behind .

“‘…. what are we proposing now? Bicycles. That’s right, a return to the world the Chinese left behind 25 years ago.”

What nonsense.! The largest public bike share schemes in the world is now successfully operating in Hangzhou, China, 51,000 bikes, set to expand to 170,000.

70 million electric bikes also  help the Chinese get around their cities and keep cars off their roads.

It’s easy to make fun of bikes,  but they are an important part of the modern transport mix and so recognized by all sensible societies

Such comments as these by Russell Edwards only show the  ignorance which cripples us.

If Russell was to visit Europe,  where vast numbers of people go to work by train, he would find,  at each railway station, thousands of bikes , awaiting their owners return at the end of the working day.

What you find at our stations in contrast , are ugly multi story commuter car parks.  His disparaging attitude to bikes is in part why they are there.

We don’t yet see bikes as transport . Often,  we can’t even say the B word. I hope this show helps change that

Last night,  the greens leader Bob Brown on lateline, could not bring himself to say that B word.

It’s cars, cars, cars, if not petrol driven, a mass of metal,  battery powered, will do, for Bob.

“we’d like to see fast, efficient public transport, including high speed rail, light rail, much more electrification of our cars in this country.

But those things are going to be slowed up because petrol’s going to remain, not subject to a carbon price. That’s how the big parties want it. They’re in lockstep on that and they will prevail.”

 

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

Tomorrow, Sunday I take the bike art the Tap gallery. The total looks like being 61 works  to be hung.

The house is in chaos.

Pictures everywhere. On the walls of course.

 

On the floor…

Katya’s fed up

having lost her table to weeks ago to the creative  frenzy

The image on top is one of the Solar etchings.  I have several variants.

The framing for the show’s  been  costly so to keep some of the prices down, I’m mounting lino cuts  on cardboard for cheaper sale, the aim being to get bike art on walls not make money

On top, there is one of my favorites and one of the most abstract.

Also,  some solar prints I’m putting behind stretch wrap to keep them down in price.

How do I feel about this mad dash prompted by my grandfather being honored across town?

Well, good in that I think the show will make a clear statement about the beauty of the classic sit up bike, something this blog’s been jabbering on about for 2 years now.

So, just as the Tour de France is starting and will dominate SBS TV here, there will be the small alternative vision of another way of riding, another bike type,   on offer

61 works on the same topic by the same artist in the same place, the Tap gallery 45 Burton st Sydney. A modest world first,  perhaps

 

I chose this  gallery in part because it’s just  a block from one of our beautiful new separated bikeway on  Bourke st.

This bikeway is under attack. I think it’s magnificent. Pleasure and practicality blended

I’m also feeling lucky because I’ve found an inspirational image.

When we lived in Canada,  we had a print of a nude on a bike on our walls,  a truly hypnotic painting . Somehow,  the print  got lost in the  move back to Australia  in  the late nineties.

When I started dong  bike art, it was in part  due to thinking about painting. I tried to sketch it from  memory .

Well I’ve  found our lost image.  Its by Moesman, who’s a sort of Dutch Maigritte.

My memory was a bit faulty .  It’s  not set at night and the violin,  which so impressed me,  is much smaller than memory made it.

This has prompted some nudes in lino, also riding away.

I regard finding this image a good omen. I’m also discovering that  it’s exceptional, that there is not that much bike art done known or lesser know artists,  which  very strange.

Here’s a bike    drawn by Toulouse-Lautrec . He loved bikes

This fits the theory behind  the show.  The nude has it’s iconic place in art. I think the human figure on the bike  should have a  revered place as well

The last good thing that’s happened in these lead up days,  is the article in the Australian.

I was very nervous about that because I’d spoken about helmets to the journalist , and how I see the compulsory  helmet law as holding us back.

Very often when you voice such thoughts here , you come out sounding silly .

But this article gave me the fairest of goes. That,  and the fact that they pictured me riding without a lid , was great.

So,onwards to the show. The party will be at 3 pm on Sunday July 10th at the gallery of course.

Try and come on a bike. The city of Sydney has installed new bike tie-ups in from of the gallery on 45 Burton st and also onPpalmer st, Darlinghurst.

For gallery details, go here

For more of what you’ll see go to flickr

Photo. Alan Pryke Source: The Australian

Many thanks  to James Schwartz The Urban Country for giving the show a mention. Also to David Hembrow, A view from the cycle path, for doing the same

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

I’m at Leonard’s studio this morning to learn more about making solar prints..

I leave my bike, parked on the right there.  at the bottom of the “mountain” and start the long climb..

Leonard and Lynne live in a spectacular circular house on the cliff above.

I pause, half way up,  to envy their view.

I pass the main house and head up the back to the studio

I’ve come because, in a stroke of great luck, I’ve found someone who thinks my bike art is good enough,  to seriously help.

I’m a bit stunned at the extent that Leonard has thrown his knowledge as  a teacher of this stuff, printmaking  at  the local art gallery, at my disposal.

Here he is in the studio,  pondering the drawings we’ll work on today

I’ve supplied drawings done on acetate, transparent sheets, done with  black markers.

Whilst they stand out well on white  paper, Leonard is doubtful that my lines are dense enough to pull good prints with the sun.

It’s important  this image, especially, works well.

This is James,  Toronto Bike Blogger.

I have my heart set on including in the show, some of the notable activist bloggers I’ve made friends  with since I began situp-cycle.com .

James Schwartz writes his Urban Country bike blog in Toronto.

James has been a very useful friend to me. When I’ve had a blog problem, he using my password , opens up this blog on the other side of the world,  and fixes it.  I guess I’ve helped him too in various ways.

At one point,  I suggested we form a movement called PHOP. That stood for; Progressives helping other progressives. That never happened but the help goes on, two way.

I also need to pull a good image that I’ve promised to TXell Hernandez who runs Barcelona Cycle chic.

That’s one of the 34 cycle chic blogs which have spring up, inspired by Copenhagen Cycle chic.

Here’s  my drawing of Txell  which we’ll  print as well

Txell’s image has  a good  density,  says Leonard, unlike  James.   But  we must press on and see what we can get out of James.

Step one, the James transparency  is positioned on a gold colored aluminium plate which has a surface which is sensitive the UV in  sunlight.

The transparency will be  locked  down in this box so it can be taken out in the sun.

There goes James for his moment  in the sun. You can see the Russian in Leonard. I  imagine him on the Steppes behind a plough long ago

Leonard favors this large clock to measure the 50 seconds. That’s the time    he plans to sun bathe James under the hills hoist.

Non Aussies will miss  the cultural significance of this shot.  That red rotator with the clothes pegged to it,   is an Aussie Icon,  or was.

Before we started dying clothes electrically, shirt and sock in this country was dried on Hills hoists. Now,  they are as rare as hens teeth, the hoists, not the socks.

Meanwhile, the press,  the main actor in this morning’s  drama, waits patiently inside.

I suspect I’ll soon want to have a press of my own but they are not cheap, around $5000, I’m told. I’d have to sell a lot of solar prints to pay for that!

Time’s almost up for James plate .

The sun has hopefully done it’s job developing the surface of the plate, all of it except what’ under the lines of my drawing.

Back inside before it gets over exposed.

Now,  into a bucket of water it goes as Leonard begins to gently scrub at golden surface.  All the developed areas should wash away, leaving the embossed image , ready to trap ink.

Just as he feared, precious little is appearing on the plate after some minutes of scrubbing

Back into the water for more rotational scrubbing.

A faint image has finally merged and Leonard says we can move to inking the plate.

Her doesn’t know it,  but his interesting posture, the hang of the pants,  are going  make an interesting  drawing  to print. I guarantee it.

Since I began this bike art project, my  eye has been developing. I now “see” pictures quite assuredly. It’s to do with movement and balance one sees  in an image.

The ink  is mixed

and goes on the plate with a spatula which then scrapes  off the excess….

…adhering to  the lines that have been etched

Almost  time to go to the press. But at this point, I  reach for the plate

I want to  swirl  the remaining ink in the open spaces to get the grainy effect on the print I want.

Leonard claims this not normal, that  it’s a new invention of mine, but that’s hard to believe.

Now,  onto the press .The plate is face up. A sheet of paper is placed on the plate, beautiful heavy textured paper,m  which feels like it’s been been made by hand in some  monastery by silent monks.

.The pressure is applied by a  soft blanket  which goes on top of  the  sandwich of paper and plate.

It’s via  the blanket that the press will  bear down on very hard on the plate and paper as Leonard  moves the table under the rollers with the big wheel,

And then…. you lift a corner to see what you’ve got. At last you see the result.

James  looks very washed out. I don’t like it much.  But Leonard likes it. I suggest he can keep it.

Inking the block again, we manage to get a much more solid print which I wont be ashamed to send to James in Toronto.

You can see how  I’ve swirled the grain. Leonard say a true print maker would  regard that as dirt. But I think it looks good, gives atmosphere.

After that, we printed Txell’s image and it went much more easily.

Indeed,  I can show you her plate developing dramatically  after washing, the image that refused to appear on James plate, is very clear..

Here Txell rapidly shows herself in relief.

And a great print resulted.

I thanked  Leonard warmly. He’s opened up a whole new world. I feel quite  empowered .

I left on my bike, the  fruits of our labor loaded into the saddle bags.

The exhibition is getting very close. I’ve  now got about two thirds of what I need for the show. There will be one more session with Leonard when we get sun again.

These are some other solar prints don previously. It’s very versatile.

Today, I picked up DL cards which look good.

I still don’t have an opening speaker for the official opening on the 10th. July. Anyone interested?

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

I’m now working at a furious pace, needing to have enough works ready to fill the Tap gallery walls.

The title of the show has grown slightly. It’s now; Nothing but Bikes. Beauty in Utility.

Our Big room is in chaos.

And the dining table is no long fit for food with the smell of turps hanging over it.

. Katya is being very understanding, though. What a treasure she is!

It on this table ‘s where  I  cut the linos. I’ve whetted the surface of this one to make the image stand out a bit.

 

Here’s what it looks like printed.

 

Image is  reversed of course . On this same table, I do the rubbings, treated paper rubbed back to white.  Lino cuts are black and white, yes or no. Rubbings give much more subtle shadings.

I’m presently  exploring torsos.

I’m also  experimenting with  oil pencil on lino prints to get shadings and gradings.

But I still like  the pure polarity, the black-while better. I’ve worked out how to make the lino cut  effect softer. Like this.

But it’s two weeks since  I cut those fine gauzy lines and my hand is still a bit numb with what my doctor says is Carpel tunnel syndrome. I’ve paid  dearly price for those lines.

Tomorrow, something easier. If the sun is bright, Leonard will help be make a bunch of solar prints from small drawings  like this.

They’ll end up on a paper with superb grain and texture like this.

I want to have  many of these drawings  which’ll provide prints I can sell less expensively.

Arrangements are firming up. The show begins Monday, July 4th, opening  as soon as it’s hung.

The entrance to the gallery is actually 45 Burton st. Darlinghurst, Sydney.  Tel. 9361 0440

The opening celebration will actually be mid show, that is on Sunday, July 10th round about 3 pm.

Saskia Howard who started Sydney Cycle Chic exactly a year ago,   seen here with Sue Abbott, will organize a ride-in to the gallery, a Tour de Tap.

 

The personality who opens the show on that day, has yet to be decided

All who come on a bike  for that event will be in a  draw for linocuts.

That’s about all the news for now. It’s stressful but I’m enjoying being pushed deeper and deeper  into bikes.

I’ve even done  an image I vowed not to do, a racing cyclist in Lycra, hunched in speed and grotesquely strong looking. You’ll have to come to see that one.

Any questions. leave a message .

 

 

 

 

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

For anyone visiting this blog, you’ll know that I’ve been wresting with how to present the ideas behind my up coming art show.

Opening, July 4rd. Monday at  the Tap Gallery, Sydney

I’ve been torn between wanting  to tell an activist story and keeping it simple.

The activist story the revolved around Cyclonica, a mythical place I’ve created.

Cycloncia  has been sometimes an island haven, a sort of bike paradise, and sometimes…

……..it ‘s been us,  The Continent of Missing Bikes.

Cyclonica, with it’s missing bikes,   conveyed the   idea  that we’ve missed  out on a whole chapter of cycle development , the sit-up bike culture.

We’ve missed out on using practical bikes  ridden in practical clothes for practical purposes, an activity which happens all over  Europe. We’ve missed out and need to catch up.

Well,  Cyclonica  stays as my  magical place,  but the show now has a simpler title .

Nothing but bikes.  Beauty in Utility

Art work which is about ….Nothing but Bikes.

The rationale is as follows;

Bike art on walls means more bikes on roads. That I believe.

If we value cycling of this sort, namely the elegant sit-up variety,  value it enough to make art about it, then we raise the profile of that way to ride and in turn,  raise the number of people riding this way.

It’s that simple!

I’m not going to show too many more images because,  then,  why would you come to the Tap gallery? The show runs for two weeks, by the way, till the 17th.

The official opening will be on the 9th or 10th of July, yet to be decided. 

But here are a few pics coming from an interesting relationship developing with Marc van Woudenberg of Amsterdamize.com.

His is a blog famous like Copenhagen Cycle Chic for featuring interesting bike photography

Marc  has also made a film about cycling in Amsterdam, called Free,  which is rather like my Waltz of the bikes.

Because Free features riders bundled up in interesting ways as they ride in the Autumn, I’ve used it  to add to my summery drawings. Here are some.

These drawing will become unique prints which look like etchings. This is done through a solar technique, exposing the  drawing to a gelatin coated in sunlight

This is done through a sun exposure process, solar prints,  being taught me by a local art teacher and  friend, Leonard Matkevich

More on how it’s one in the next blog post.  But the results will look like this.

That’s all for now.

 

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

I’ve finally, after the most painful doubts and struggles,  decided to go back to my original idea  in terms of a title for the coming art show. (July 4th.)

It will be; The Bike art of Cyclonica; Island of the Missing Bikes .

It’s a bit long, but that’s it.

It came like this. I’d imagined an island  which was  missing something, namely  a bike culture of a certain sort.

The island is us, Australia, though we are actually a continent, I know.   “Island”  sounds more magical.

So, this island, Cyclonica,  has never developed in any proper way the easy going cycling  Europe, the way you see practiced so beautifully here in  the, The Walt of the Bikes

I finally decided I had to tell my Cyclonica  story when, last night, an  image of a  large family going somewhere in Holland,  came together on the paper, an image you could never see here.

And how sad is that?

In my story, it’s  sad for Cyclonica because the cycling which has thrived on our island, the sports /leisure mode,  whilst fine in its way,   is not the best way to move lots of people around on two wheels.

It’s not utility cycling

This means that any morning in any Aussie city,  to the extent you see people riding to work, and it’s comparatively few,  you see mostly see guys   in Lycra and on lightweight machines, a very different bunch of bike commuters to what you’d see in Europe.

They are taking cars off the roads, and that’ great. But they don’t attract new riders out of those cars, or so I suspect.

How did our bike culture, in our perfect climate for  utility cycling,  get warped  towards the sports/ Lycra mode  like this?

I have an explanation, over simple perhaps, but  true none the less.

When compulsory bike helmets were brought in from about 1991 onwards, they had an unexpected effect. (By now, the whole world knows that cycling decreased by about 30%.)

What is not realized,  is that the new laws worked like those herbicides which kill off some plants and spare others.

The new laws acted as a selective herbicide on cycling.

They  mainly discouraged those who used bikes in the European way, whilst favoring those who already thought helmets were as good idea, the sports riders. Thus one group thrived whilst the other withered.

No one meant this to happen. It just did.

Pensioners who’d  shopped on bikes,….

…..kids who always ridden to school  such riders had felt quite safe bare headed.   They resented  the fines, and just stopped using their bikes.

Gradually,  the bike sheds at schools emptied and were soon pull down.    School buses, still clogging our roads today,  became the rule. Cyclonica kids began to get fat, very fat.

Commuters now drove to the railway station,  and were soon demanding multi storied parking for their cars.  Ugly concrete boxes sprung up costing millions , taking  good land  around all  the railway stations in my region.

At Gosford station in the morning ,  for instance,   2000 cars  wait for  their owners return whilst a forlorn little bike rack,  holds a dozen bikes if it’s lucky.

A dozen! It’s  unbelievable and tragic.

Pure  insanity, but to suggest  so,   labels you crazy. The private car is  still king,. And this car is not a lifestyle choice but a lifesteal choice.

Still, you  try to make some sense

For some years,   with like minded  bloggers, I’ve been pushing the sit-up bike.

I know it’s  the bike type most likely to entice the driver from his/her  car, given how comfortable and practical it is.

I’ve also joined  the helmet choice campaign because I also know that driver is more apt to change vehicles,  if there is helmet choice .

I’m not worried about safety. I’m  convinced that there will no be jump in head injuries since we know that counties with choice,  have much better bike accident stats than we do.

Helmet are not keeping  us safe. And that’s for a curious reason, again something which hasn’t  been realized.

When Govts. like ours,  made helmets compulsory, they stopped  spending money on the real tools for safety, namely separated pathways.

Helmet let them off the hook, save them money or so they think.

No one will entertain the idea that true safety is under the wheels, not on the head.

So, that’s the theory  behind my idea of Cyclonica, the island that missed out.  Some of those ideas will be hinted at in the art I’ll show.

How? Well,   all people in my images are  riding stately sit ups.

None of my imagined  riders wear helmets. All look interesting and  sort of happy.

Well, not unhappy and certainly comfortable.

I’m  creating an image  world which doesn’t yet exist here,   using riders from my European video shoots  as my models.

There is also my thought that unexpected images like these,  can raise the profile of cycling of this sort.

More bikes  on the walls ( of a certain type)  means more  bikes (of a certain type) on the roads… perhaps.

From the walls to the roads, it’s just another path to try.

Three other images  got done yesterday and now vie for show selection

and

And this Lino cut. Lino cuts are more difficult. But very satisfying,

Thanks for their support for such ideas,  James Schwartz and Paul Martin. Thanks for their inspiration. Mikael  Colville- Andersen and David Hembrow.

Marian has just sent me a  short Oscar winning film, Father and daughter, from the Netherlands which moved me to tears, to even sobbing.

Yes, bikes come into it. Bikes linked to loyalty, to continuity,  to loss as well.

Great Bike art.

I can’t understand how I don’t know about this film.  Do you?

 

http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

I found a bunch of thoughts on bikes tucked away in a file and am now dribbling them out on Twitter, partly as a way of feeling more at home with the little blue bird.

So far I’ve tweeted….

Baskets on bikes remind us that  life is an egg and spoon race.

Street belong to cyclists the way waves belong to surfers.

Darwin discovered the human form evolved to fit the bike. Not the other way round as some believe.

The stately sit-up bike is the perfect position from which to practice the king’s speech. I ride therefore I am.

A car is not a lifestyle choice, but a lifesteal choice. (that the most popular so far)

Riding in a car is like sitting in a puddle of oil… gooey!

Destinations reached by bike are more precious, having been earned with one’s legs.

Many more to come.

Meanwhile,  I’m making my art for the July 4th show, but am still agonizing as to what to call it.  I want the title to intrigue as well as make a statement.

Here are some recent editions to the portfolio. This one is going today to David Hembrow who’s blog,  A view from the cycle path, has been such a help.

The two blobs in the distance are his and a friend’s Mango’s, sleek recumbants.

As well as rubbings, I press on with the lino cuts. One, I’m really proud of, being such a tricky subject.

See if you can guess the inspiration.

Yeah, the jumble of bikes at a Dutch parking station. This is my most subtle Lino  cut to date I reckon

Last week,  I went through a phase thinking I’d celebrate the  some of the looming figures in our activist pantheon, that is have portraits of them  in the show.

I wrestled for days to get a likeness of Mikael Colville- Andersen. I got him at last to my satisfaction.

He’s not so sure. Says he does recognize the scarf, though

The drawings are coming along well, ordinary people on bikes like this old guy shopping, an Amsterdam image.

That’s a plastic bag he’s got slung on his handlebars.

Ah yes,  what to call the show now just a month away?

First I created an imaginary country in my mind; Cyclonica. The show going to be;

Cyclonica, Continent of the missing  bikes.

meaning us, meaning missing a sit-up bike culture.

Then,  that became Cyclodreaming. Bike art for the Future.

That sounded more positive. My latest idea comes from one of my  found aphorisms.

A million years ago, cave art  told our survival story.  Lit  by the  flickering fame, what was really important went on the cave walls.   Bike art today tells the same story.

So this becomes a new title possibility. Cave art from the cycloscene period.

I like the idea of asserting that what we have on our walls,  is the what’s important. And if not , it should be.

So,  that’s where I am right now.

The pedal is a true friend. The more you push it down, the more it  forgives and comes back.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been doing a lot of rubbings for the bike art show. They are fun to do, much more spontaneous that the lino cuts, and so I’m having a run on those.

It began with pieces   for Paul Martin and Veronica. They’re  on  a cycle study tour in Holland led by Paul van Bellen of Gazelle cycles.

A couple of Paul Martin photos caught me eye, and I decided to create rubbed versions. The first is Veronica on a Dutch country road.

And the second, Paul,  under an umbrella beside a Dutch canal just last week.

I guess I’m slightly surprised at how fascinating it remains  to  be making art on bikes, only bikes, and mostly of the sit-up variety.

People who photograph them regularly,  like Mikael   at  Copenhagen, Copenhagen Cycle Chic, the Amsterdamize Blog in Holland, and all the other cycle  chic blogs ,  none of them of watching bikes and their riders ever tire of it.

It’s not just the politics of promoting our  brand of cycling  which keeps us going,  but rather that bikes in action are so  beautiful and varied,  even if repetitive in the way they move

The images non riders mostly see of of bikes in the media  is of course racing machines. Thus these  get more than enough attention.

They   interest neither me nor, it seems,  the photographers I admire.

The riding  we like to record  is always fresh viewing for several reasons. Firstly,  our riders are in their normal clothes so that their individuality is on display on the bike.  Not for them the conformity of  Lycra.

Secondly, unlike racers, they are using their bikes for the huge variety of reasons one has for getting around,  carrying everything from pets in baskets to double bases.

By their nature,  Sports bikes carry nothing but their riders and that’s boring for the artist. Water bottles, as added features,   become all the same very quickly

Thirdly, sports cyclists are much more locked into a narrow set of postures which, while they work well  for speed, for hill climbing etc,   mean that there’ss less visual interest for the photographer, the artist.

Add to this that  such rider’s heads are usual down, the eyes shaded, so the “the window of the soul”, the face, is lost to the viewer.

The upright  rider, even their  back,  is expressive whilst their faces are forever interacting with the world around them in interesting ways.

Sit-up riders may to some extent be poseurs,  well aware of how good such bikes make them look .

Some may dress for the ride . But where bikes are the normal way to get about, where they’re  very  “everyday,” what you get is mostly unguarded naturalness.

I like both, the odd look,  and the elegant regal ride.

True grace is best caught unawares,  In the rider’s  little skip , getting  balance and  taking off,  for example.

In the lift  from the saddle to crest a rise.

….or just the ambling home, a pensioner,   with the shopping on the handlebars kn a plastic bag.

I’ve been finding all this, thinking these thoughts, whilst  watching, frame by frame,  film material shot in Europe.  The Waltz of the Bikes, has been a gold mine for me.

I study the material, frame by frame,  to find my themes. In doing so, I’m strangely better off,   I feel,  than I would be drawing from life.

This is  because an artist’s  model is usually in repose, whereas my models are always in action.

Now, that I’ve worked for a year on my own photos , I’ve started using the images  of  other bloggers, as inspiration. hoping they wont mind.

What they’ve been photographing, Mikael Colville-Andersen and many of the bloggers he’s inspired,   is especially valuable to us in Australia.

This is because he and they have been according value and status   to  bikes which  are   often disparaged here  as of little interest,  slow and heavy, mere scrapheap material

I”m  keeping  posture from the images I use , but am changing  much else , the  faces, even  the story sometimes.

Here’s a rubbing  based an early  Copenhagen Cycle Chic photo,  one of my favorites..

The charm is in the conversation caught by the camera  and  so this story stays.  It reminds me  of how naturally  friendly this sort of cycling is.

Visiting Mikael’s blog led me  to the New York Cycle Chic and it’s  creator Noa Cortez . He also has great  images, but I was particularly caught by a video he’d posted of himself,  riding around in a long black  coat.

The cut of his coat,  how it hung on his slim frame as he pushed his Dutch bike to a parking spot , caught  my eye, and  so stopping the film, I drew Nero in several sequential movements.

It’s pretty sketchy and scratchy, this effort Yet,  I like well enough  to be sure to put it in the show.

After that , today I went to Amsterdamise.com (see above for link) another photo rich blog. I was  craving, for some reason,  cargo bikes.

I found two  great images  of these boat-like boxes, each with a very  different rider, waiting to roll from rest.

Changing the story,  I brought them together into  the same  image. It seemed like a friendly thing to do. I gave the tall think  guy a small tree to transport , whilst the woman kept her child and got one more .

The cargo boxes became  strangely boat-like

Finally,  unrelated to bike art, I was sent a piece of writing about bikes and their impact  from another blog which riveted me, so well was it put.

The author is KaseyKlimes, an American, and it seems that she might be an urban planner.

Here’s  the most relevant piece  for us.

On a bicycle, citizens experience their city with deep intimacy, often for the first time. For a regular motorist to take that two or three mile trip by bicycle instead,  is to decimate an enormous wall between them and their communities.

In their cars, the world is reduced to mere equation. “What is the fastest route from A to B?” one will ask as they start their engine. This invariably results in a cascade of freeway concrete flying by at incomprehensible speeds. Their environment, the neighborhoods that compose their communities, the beauty of architecture, the immense societal problems in distressed areas, the faces of neighbors… all of this becomes a conceptually abstract blur from the driver’s seat.

Yes, the bicycle is a marvelously efficient machine of transportation, but in the city it is so much more. The bicycle is new vision for the blind man. It is a thrilling tool of communication, an experiential device for the beauty and the ills of the urban context. One cannot turn a blind eye on a bicycle – they must acknowledge their community, all of it.

Here lies the secret weapon of the urban renaissance.

You see, those of us fighting for our cities, we struggle because too few see the problems, and fewer understand the solutions. They are quite literally racing past the issue, too busy to see, too fast to comprehend.

I cannot approach the average citizen and explain the innate intricacies of land use and transportation relationships, how density is vital to urban sustainability, how our sprawled real estate developments are built on economic quicksand, how our freeways shredded the urban fabric like a rusty dagger, how deeply our lives would be enriched by a collective commitment to urbanism.

Not only will their eyes glaze over, but they may very well become outraged. No one wants to be told that they must radically alter their lifestyle, no matter how well you sell it.

The bicycle doesn’t need to be sold. It’s economical, it’s fun, it’s sexy, and just about everyone already has one hiding somewhere in their garage.

Invite a motorist for a bike ride through your city and you’ll be cycling with an urbanist by the end of the day. Even the most eloquent of lectures about livable cities and sustainable design can’t compete with the experience from atop a bicycle saddle.

“These cars are going way too fast,” they may mutter beneath their breath.

“How are we supposed to get across the highway?”

“Wow, look at that cathedral! I didn’t know that was there.”

“I didn’t realize there were so many vacant lots in this part of town.”

“Hey, let’s stop at this cafe for a drink.”

Suddenly livability isn’t an abstract concept, it’s an experience. Human scale, connectivity, land use efficiency, urban fabric, complete streets… all the codewords, catchphrases, and academic jargon can be tossed out the window because now they are one synthesized moment of appreciation. Bicycles matter because they are a catalyst of understanding – become hooked on the thrill of cycling, and everything else follows. Now that new freeway isn’t a convenience but an impediment. Mixed-use development isn’t a threat to privacy but an opportunity for community. And maybe, just maybe, car-free living will eventually be seen not as restrictive, but as a door to newfound freedom.

The real reason why bicycles are the key to better cities?

Some might call it enlightenment.

-Kasey Klimes