Easyriders Magazine May, 2005

MOVING SCULPTURES
ART OF THE MOTORCYCLE WORLD

BY J. MICHAEL JOHNSON

Spartanburg, South Carolina, is known as the "Crossroads of the South." It is the home of Spartanburg Harley-Davidson, the Spartanburg County Museum of Art, C&C Thunder Custom Cycles, and is a city that Bocephus (Hank Jr.), sings about.

Famous racecar drivers got their start running "shine" in the rolling hills of the Carolinas and on the small dirt tracks in and around Spartanburg before moving onto the hard-packed sandy beaches of Daytona, Florida.

Theresa Mann, executive director of the Spartanburg County Museum of Art, and the other members of the museum's Ways and Means Committee, now joins the ranks of the famous with the museum's Moving Sculptures, Art of the Motorcycle World art show and exhibition.

Moving Sculptures opened April 2004 with a one-day art show and exhibition at the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds. At 5 o'clock Saturday evening, all art show entries and exhibitions moved to the museum's building on South Spring Street until May 31, 2004.

There was a great ride-in-bike show and a vintage bike show. A.C. (Clint) Button brought a collection of five Ducatis, a Moto Guzzi, a Benelli, and a BMW motorcycle. Clint even cranked up the BMW for a show visitor. Dennis Harris of Chesnee Classic Cycles, Chesnee, South Carolina displayed a BMW, a 1972 Harley-Davidson Rapido, a Harley-Davidson panhead and an Ossa Stilleto motorcycle. Dennis even brought his collection of 1800s bicycles. Steve Fincher Photography out of Spartanburg displayed the Alfred T. Willis Motorcycle Photo Collection.

James and Cecile Evans' 1937 "Wooden Indian Chief" motorcycle was one of the major showstoppers. It took James three years to build the bike and every bit of it is made of wood (featured in the May 2002 issue of Easyriders).

Michael Lichter's Biker Generation collection traveled from the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida, after Daytona's March 2004 Bike Week. Biker Generation is a photography collection of motorcycles and their riders, which portrays the interesting and exciting lifestyle of riders.

The Moving Sculptures show featured 28 exhibits from the upstate area of South Carolina, western North Carolina, Delaware, Florida and Pennsylvania. Entries included wood sculptures, oil paintings on boards and canvas, 35mm images in black and white and color, as well as digital images. Maureen Welsh entered Raindrops, which showed raindrops on a V-twin engine mounted under the gas tank of a Harley. James Huff showed motorcycle-racing images, while T.L. Johnson presented a paper collage titled When Hell Freeze's Over.

I watched visitors touch the glass that covered images of the The Wall, images taken at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial during Rolling Thunder XVI in Washington, D.C.

C&C Thunder's, Gothic custom chopper was probably the first motorcycle ever displayed in the art museum. Taz air-brushed Claudia's bodysuit to match the artwork on the Gothic chopper. While visitors, vendors, sponsors and bikers spent time talking about their ways of life and the events and places they have traveled to, the bands Plum Hollow and Copper Hill played blues, bluegrass and old-time rock 'n' roll music, rocking the rolling hills surrounding Spartanburg.

Who would have ever thought that bikers would someday be the focus of an art museum show. Kinda makes you want to treat us with more respect, doesn't it?