Sunday, September 5, 2010

Reader Rides. Beautifully Built And Photographed Triumphs From Artist James Willis

James Writes in:

Cool site Man.
James


Thanks James. For those of you interested in his work I did some searching and found what I'm pretty sure is his site here:  http://www.headdownhelmeton.com/   and samples of his motorcycle related work here: http://www.artofthebike.com/store.php?crn=210

Excellent stuff.

James if I missed anything I'd appreciate it if you could set me straight.  Thanks.


Update:  I found the following description of the first bike below, written by James on the Chopper Nation Website Direct Link Here

"I'm a professional "post modern impressionist cityscape painter" and as it turns out, accidental bike builder. This bike, "Edgar Allan Poe", is the direct result of a collector of my paintings commenting on the funky look of my personal bike, which led to the funky look of her personal bike, which led to rebuilding of a couple of bikes in my studio which led to the ground up build of "Edgar". All the leather work, painting, gold-leafing and assembly was done in my studio at West 57th Street but, thanks to several near death experiences with previous builds, my studio mates kindly requested the engine "get the F*^$# done somewhere else". My friend Dave did the honors building a pristine motor for me and we moved engine shells back and forth so I could keep the spirit of the bike intact.

650 cc Triumph powerplant

38 Harley Springer front end
model T oil headlamp rewired for "'lectric"
custom leather and leather seat on Biltwell (what else-all my seats now are on Biltwell pans)
most of the goldleaf done on my Wife's dinning room table (while she was in Europe with the kids)
because, or did I mention, no heat in the warehouse because of some other near death experiences . Artist, as it turns out, are quite flammable.

I show the bikes with paintings and drawings done of the bikes as one piece of Art. There are so many bike builders whose bikes become Art. I'm a working artist whose Art, well, sorta became a bike.


James"





2 comments:

  1. Yep, that's me! Sorry I didn't get you info sooner but I've been moving my studio and things have been nuts! Glad you like my bikes. I think I'm pretty much of the radar in the guys who build bikes category. Thanks for noticing.

    James
    www.jamesawillis.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. off the radar, that is

    ReplyDelete

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