Car Art and Hot Rod Art Become Fine Art Have you ever met Tom Fritz? Chances are, you'd remember if you had. You probably noticed the dark display at one of your favorite car shows, then you were drawn in by the vivid paintings filling almost every bit of dark.  I last ran into the flip-flop wearing, ultra soft-spoken Fritz at Barrett Jackson 2010. I don't know crap about art, especially fine art except for what I like, and I like what Tom's throwing down. Tom's art is all the more sweet when he takes the time to talk with you about each piece and fill you in on some of the catchy titles like: "Feeling the Belts", "Raising Merry Hell II", "Ancient Barbaric Amusements" and one of my favorites, "Quick Sombish".  (link to Fritzart Gallery) Tom wrote about the making of "Quick Sombish" from the concept sketches to the in-process work and of course, the finished piece (shown here). To date, it's one of my favorite stories at MyRideisMe.com and a recommended read for any artist. Read about this Wheels up front engine dragster by clicking here. To pass...

Well if I could paint like Tom Fritz, I would. If I could draw like my friends Brian and Dwayne, I'd probably do that too.  Since my creativity's pretty much limited to taking pictures, I'm doing my best to catch up to the great shots taken by Swanee, my main man shooting for MyRideisMe.com. Swanee's yet to lay down his shots from GNRS, so here's mine, FISHEYE style. A fisheye lens is an ultra wide-angle lens that takes in an extremely wide, hemispherical image. A side effect of this super wide shot is the distortion.  I'm shooting with a 10.5mm fisheye lens. Sometimes that distortion looks kinda cool with the swoopy angles of a custom or in tight on the details of an engine like the Stromberg powered flathead in Blackie Gejeian's "Blackie" Roadster. Sometimes, the look is just sinister!  This is the grille from "Camel Toe Racing" 1932 Ford.  The closer you get, the more distortion. I'm just a couple inches off this grill and I probably cropped the shot some. Too bad I have to give the lens back to my boss! Shooting in the Suede Palace...

My friend Mitzi, pinup and hot rod photographer extrordinaire from Mitziandco.com, has helped out MyRideisMe.com by generously supplying some of the hottest pinup pics found in our pinup model gallery and now is throwing a party!  Saturday night, 1/30/2010, after shooting pinup models wide-open at the Grand National Roadster Show, Mitzi will open her new studio to show her favorite pictures, hot rod art and a special burlesque show!  Everyone's welcome, so we'll see you there!  Some more details for you: Join us for an evening of Art, Music and Burlesque on Saturday January 30th as Mitzi & Co. along with Cherry Martini bring you Fueled The Art Show. An amazing collection of artwork will be on display and for sale from artists Keith Weesner, The Pizz, Max Grundy, George Barris, Mitzi Valenzuela, Dwayne Vance, Tiki Ray and more. The evening kicks off with live burlesque performances by Miss Rockwell DeVil, Violet Valentine and Betsey Bosen. Join us for the after party following Grand National Roadster Show on Saturday night. Only 10 minutes from the Pomona Fairplex at the Mitzi & Co. Photo Studio in San Dimas, CA. (address...

Written by Jim McIlvaine Our cars are our pride and joy. We love them, cherish them and in some cases, treat them better than we treat ourselves. Realistically, we know the relationships we have with our beloved machines usually don’t last a lifetime. Our tastes may change or our family obligations may finally win out and we eventually part ways. Still, we’ll always have memories and often photos are a great way to re-live some of those special times. Unfortunately, our love for our vehicles is often blind. When we look through the viewfinder, all we see is our car and we often overlook some pretty glaring issues that are really detracting from our pride and joy. It doesn’t have to be this way! To help out, here are three easy tips, which will, regardless of what kind of camera you own, help you take better pictures of your ride. Tip #1: Location, Location, Location You’ve spent all weekend detailing your car and finally it's perfect for pictures. Next, you break out your camera and start snapping some shots, right? WRONG! Your car deserves better than that. Take a...

It's Saturday night rolling down Main Street in El Segundo, a cute little Maybury-esque town in Los Angeles County. All of the sudden the street is lined with hot rods and some bobber-styled bikes. Cool cats pour out of a store front holding cans of Pabst beer in their hands. Have I landed in heaven?! Not just yet. It just the New Year's Nuisance 2 art show & party at Gasoline Gallery. This gallery has been growing into its own little epicenter of kustom kulture over the past couple years. Specializing in low-brow art and artist-featured t-shirts (and most recently a record label all their own,) Gasoline Gallery throws these great shin-digs every couple months when their gallery-show changes. I've been to a few of these now and am pleased to report this show was just as high quality and fun as the others - with artist, 3 sheets, taking the spotlight. That's enough of my blabbering, let me just show you the pictures! For more info on any of the work or artists shown, contact Gasoline Gallery or look em up on MySpace. I didn't realize at first...

Check this out guys and gals.  I told you to keep an eye on Andy's Pinstriping blog didn't I?  Here's his latest work, getting ready for the Rat Fink Reunion 2010.  "As is tradition every year at the Rat Fink Reunion, The artist's give out an "Artist's Choice" award to their favorite vehicle at the show.  This years "trophy" from me is a metal panel that features my man Fink doing some ca-razy stripe and letter work...and to finish it off I also distressed the panel so it looks like it was hanging in Ed's shop in Maywood California back in the early sixties. I hope whoever receives this enjoys it as it was a labor of love to make!"  Andy   Click on the image to blow it up real big.  Looks even cooler! Rat Fink Reunion 2010, Manti, Utah June 3-5, be there or be square!  I hope to attend this year's event.  How often is there an event of this caliber in Utah right? Hechtspeed...

It's a rare treat to find a gorgeous pinup model like Heidi Van Horne who's also a great story about why, "My Ride is Me".  That's why Heidi's a holiday gift for you from MyRideisMe.com and our Christmas Season "Pinup of the Month". One thing you'll notice in quite a few pictures in Heidi's Pinup Picture Gallery is the tan colored F100 named "Molly" that Heidi owns, drives and even wrenches on! (click to see each picture full size) (Photos by Dale Rio) So of course, I had to ask, Why Molly? Heidi said, "I don’t know.  I don’t ever know why a car or truck’s name is what it is.  It just tells me one day.  No clue!" Like most of us, Heidi got into cars from family: "I grew up working on cars to keep ‘em running, with my dad and brother.  I had to work on them to get to work and school, no glory in it, just a matter of life!  ;) But it gave me an appreciation for the mechanics of it all and wishing for one like my dad talked about having when...

If you can't wait until summer time Goodguys Gazette, scratch that now-time itch and check out MyRideisMe.com's pictures from the 2009 Goodguys Southwest Nationals! Did we shoot your car? Have you've ever worked at something and thought you were making progress improving your skill, then found out you were still way behind? That's happening to me with my photography. I didn't shoot alot of pictures at Goodguys, but I shot a few and thought a couple of them were pretty good! But then, just after I sent the, "Hey Swanee, you gonna load your shots?" email, I noticed he'd already loaded them in the events picture gallery. You're good people Swanee! 'Cept for the fact that your images kill mine, that is... You can tell by the logo, that slammed Caddy riding on twenty-plus wires photo above is from our Alaska-raised Director of Photography. Shown here is one of my best shots. This is the 1957 Chevy Custom that won the Goodguy/Grundy Kustom of the Year. Sunset in Arizona is frequently a, "Damn it's good to be alive" event and this Saturday evening in Scottsdale made for some great...

This is probably the coolest Barn Find to date.  I'm not gonna talk much on this one, because it will take up too much space where pictures should be.  Please check out this website.  Looks like each car can be purchased for $2000.  Heck, if you're crazy enough, you can purchase his drafting plans for $10/ea to build your own.  Good luck though, because you're going to need serious craftsmanship to build it.  Here's the website: Sandy's Can Cars You'll be blown away, I was!...

Following in the footsteps of my last post about Cool Pinstriping, a post about cool hot rod art, drawings and paintings is needed for sure.  We've shown you some great art this year, here's just a sample.  We're going to put together a "Hot Rod Art" picture gallery soon, so we'll let you know when that's up and running.  For now, peep these for your viewing pleasure! Included are links to the stories these pieces of hot rod art came from in 2009.  Don't forget to click the images for a Full Size view! First, some digital artistry from our man Brian Stupkski, of PCKStudio fame!  Check out the informative story on "How to Pick a Hot Rod Designer" I personally have a print of this Ed "Big Daddy" Roth inspired Nissan Cube concept.  Check the story out HERE! Next up, we have some hot rod sketched art by Alan Brightmore!  These were a couple of my faves from 2009. There was a time when I serious considered having a 60's VW Bus custom as my family daily hauler.  This is exactly how I'd want it to look! This Black Camaro...

Here's a look at some of the coolest pinstriping found on MyRideisMe.com during 2009.  I think you'll agree, pinstriping is alive and well.  So many hours go into practicing and painting, it takes a dedicated person on top of the skill required to lay a great line.  Enough words, these pictures will tell a 1000 of them on their own.  Enjoy! Please check out the full Pinstriping Gallery to see even more works of art! Click the pictures to see them Enlarged. And a few of the stripers who we give much respect to, Charlie, Joel and Andy. So, there were so many pictures I wanted to share that one post is not enough.  Keep your eyes peeled for more!...

As always, MyRideisMe.com is on the lookout for pinstriping at races or car shows so you can see what's out there and decide what to do on your own ride.  Here's a few from the Goodguys Southwest Nationals in Scottsdale, AZ. All Photos by my man and Director of Photography at MyRideisMe.com, Swanee... To see all of Swanee's pinstriping pictures from Goodguys, please go to the Pinstriping Picture Gallery This Arizona Pinstriper Joel from 1320designs.com doing his thing on MyRideisMe.com member Mr. Freeze's slammed Suburban he recently picked up. Joel's rates are very reasonable for striping and he's also an up-and-coming designer as well. Make sure to check out his website and let him know MyRideisMe.com sent you! What do you think? If this is YOUR pinstriping work (or your car!), please let us know and we'll say so next to the picture. Leave your comments below and don't forget to see all the pinstriping pics in the: Pinstriping Picture...