|
randy mccoy bio
|
| bio statement |
My first drawings as a child were of dragsters drawn over and over. I rebuilt my first engine when I was 11 by reading a shop manual by myself. I will never forget the surprised look on my Dad's face when, after driving me around all over for parts, the bike started on the first kick and I rode away on it. My first real job was as a mechanic's apprentice with a guy who was a real hot-rodder, every teenage boy's dream job. I have always been excited by internal combustion, any vehicle, and the freedom they represent. There is nothing quite like being on the road and the feelings you encounter, and the fellow travelers you may meet. Or like the exhilaration of 750 horsepower that you are in control of...the power of 750 horses all at once! It really is pure adrenaline. The sounds, smells, and the tactile feeling of having your body forced back by gravity during intense acceleration. I noticed that my life was filled with art books and magazines and car books and magazines, as well as a collection of art and hot rod cars and bikes. I decided to meld my two interests in my paintings. Ask anyone who has ever seen Two Lane Blacktop (1971 movie), Easy Rider (1969 movie) or taken a road trip and they will confirm America truly is the land of the open road and hot rods.
America was also the land of abstract expressionism and I feel an affinity to these painters for the way they lived and painted. The cars in these paintings are engulfed in an abstract field of paint. Paint for the love of paint and color. Driving down the road and seeing a great rust streak running down the side of a freighter while driving on the Alaskan Way viaduct. The feelings encountered when I am painting or looking at paintings that speak to me are the same ones I encounter when I am building or driving a hot rod or motorcycle. I remember seeing a lowrider car in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum when I was about 18 and thinking how great the large David Hockney painting. The Road to My Studio was and how cool that it was in the same museum as a modified 1963 Chevy. For me these paintings are about making an object that is unique and unlike other art objects and paintings, while exploring color, imagery, and a process that is exclusive to these pieces.
|
|
| |
|