(Rudy Rucker is a guestblogger. His latest novel, Hylozoic, describes a postsingular world in which everything is alive.)
I’ve been fascinated by cars with flames ever since I was a kid poring over my big brother’s hot rod magazines.
[Photo by Don Marritz]
In 1973 I had a fairly generic white Ford that I painted flames on my myself. Here’s a picture of me with the car and my daughter, Georgia, who’s now a graphic designer of such books as the best-selling Twilight Movie Companion.
I did a hand-painted, amateur job on my flames— not at all the way the pros do it—but it was fun. And, despite the dire warnings of my friends, I was still able to sell the car when I moved.
A couple of weeks ago I went to the Show and Go car show in Riverside, California, which got me excited about flames all over again.
I found a quintessential flame-car photo on the web today, it’s this Merc Lead Sled shot, and it appears on John Filiss’s "Serious Wheels" site, among other gems in the "Mercury Custom" section…just look under "M".
Today I finished a painting on this theme, "Man in Flame Car." It’s hard to pin down the guy’s mood. (More info on my paintings page.)