Reflections on the Era and Aura of the Car………… in Sculpture

The Road Rocket – ByThomas Aitken

American power and the race to dominate space propelled us Americans in the cold war. This emotional time was personified in the ultimate driving machine. The 59 Cadillac. As a Monument this massive and elaborately decorated machine just oozed sex, power style and luxury. The last of Harley Earl’s famous run of sculptural forms from the studios at General Motors this machine says America. . When I began to think about which cars belonged in the Nike series as icons to our Boomer experiences this was a must. The distillation process on the Caddie was a no brainer। This was about rocket flight. The fins and fuselage were natural forms for this idea. So the “Road Rocket” was created and added to the group।

As it went from maquette to pewter it got slicker. And the rear view became for me the key to it’s power to move our minds into space and supremacy in the universe. I had a wonderful time creating a clay for the pedestal size version with all it’s cool rockety details. The bronze took forever to get cast and needed a lot of body work once back to the studio. But the finished piece flies with all the power intended.

(those times live in this video link)

I have searched but found no owner of a 59 who would loan it to me for mold making. I’ve heard that there is a guy out west who buys 59s sight unseen and has three guys restoring them full time. No wonder ya can’t find one! If I get a chance to execute this full sized I would gladly carve it in foam and I believe I have a process for polymer modified cement that would work well for a finish material, but alas, this is a huge project and will have to wait for funding.

By the time I got to work at GM on a Cadillac they had lost the top place in the auto pecking order. And the glory of this machine is now a historical land mark. The times of excess, the cold war, the space race, are all footnotes. The form of the Road Rocket is still a favorite of mine. I did one of my first castings of this piece in polymer modified cement. I love this material for it’s ability to carry color, (entire pantone chart) and inclusions of dramatic aggregate. Plus it will withstand a severe climate and is pretty green! More to come on this stuff.

The 59 is now basically a "Nike" statue in our boomer history, a remnant of out conquering days.

Next time: 2 sweet roadsters for zipping around.

Thanks and as always please send feedback

SculptureByTj.com

Tj

From Study to tand alone Sculpture

A funny thing happened on the way to designing the model.

I began a layout for the pedestal sized “Boomer’s Nike” and was preparing to model the piece when a friend came by with a sheepish request. It seemed he had this 57 Chevy that he was going to restore in the spring and needed a place to store it for the winter. Holy Schneiky! He had no problem with me pulling molds from it so it was agreed, the Chevy came to my studio. By the spring there was a set of plaster molds of all four corners of the car and details of chrome. These were carefully assembled and laid up in fiberglass to become a full sized sculpture. I got a nice wheel cover, (hub cap in 50’ speak) mold but I wanted a good amount of crush in the tire to indicate weight. This proved to be difficult. Even deflated it takes a lot of weight to squash down a tire. A vice and some pipes made it just right and I got molds of tread and sidewalls from a spare that had never been used , a good early 60s Firestone whitewall.

By summer I was casting a concrete base and the boomer stood seven feet tall. Another friend was getting out of the solid surface counter top business (think Corian) and I bought up his surplus powders and flakes for making castings. Now each piece could have it’s own formula.

There are hours and hours of work to develop a form like this. These times include lots of meditation on what this object is really about. My head spun for months on my teenage years and the meaning of getting my first car, on the adoration of the 57 that I saw in collectors and restorers. My generation has a level of obsession with these machines that is tantamount to worship! We poor resources and attention into this phenomena

Some design friends who saw the Boomer’s Nike made the comment “I could see a whole series of these….” So I began to plan and to consider which cars I should reduce and reconstruct to a goddesses torso, and started hunting for models and toys of classics to do maquette studies. I looked hard at cars and started to think about the their forms and more importantly what these particular designs said about us , and why they had gained their reputations. “Which ones were worthy of Goddess status?”

I so loved constructing something new from the existing classic elements that I had to try a few more. There were many cars from this era that spoke equally strongly.

The row of maquettes grew. http://www.sculpturebytj.com/nikepewterspage

Next time, each car dissected and explored
Thanks,
Tj