Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Talking Portrait: 17th Street Locos

In 1981 I drew a portrait of two guys on the Santa Monica pier, then asked them to describe themselves into a tape recorder.

(Video link) For the first time, their faces and voices are brought together in a talking portrait.


Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing for spotlighting this post.

8 comments:

Matthew Kerr said...

What on earth does, "two spoke down" mean? I assume it's something about spoked wheel rims...

Any ideas?

Janet Oliver said...

Hilarious. Very cute!

Roberto said...

Man! that was great! I always wondered what happened to those two Vato's. I guess "Froggy's" still in SM, one way or t'other.
Great post "Li'l Jimi."
Oh, and happy birthday to Willie, (I still owe you for that burger at the Palomino). -RQ

erc said...

Was that a cool sketch or what? It reminds me of The Artist's Guide to Sketching, That goes way back.

Jim Martin said...

I really enjoyed this combination of word and image. Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Outstanding depiction of Mitchell and Froggy...Froggy said he had a 69 Caprice "TRU SPOKED" down..(manufacturer of custom wheels ) great to see this art 36 years later...

Anonymous said...

What a great depiction of Mitchell and Froggy...nice to see this art 36 years later...Froggy had a 69 Caprice with "Tru Spokes"(name of custom wheel manufacturer )..not 2 spokesp.it was hard to understand Froggy when he was buzzed

James Gurney said...

Sergio, thanks, that's awesome, I appreciate the clarification. It sounds like you knew them. Wonder how they're doing?