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Catherine Rains - Artist
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Evolution of Spirit
Bikes –
How it all got started
I’ve always appreciated
the beauty of motorcycles, but never intended for my art to focus
on them. Although I loved every minute of being a full time artist,
it all changed in 2002 when I complained to a friend that I wasn’t
making enough money. In a flippant response my friend said that
if I would add a Harley to each of my collages
, I would make a fortune. As a gallery artist, I thought this
was a ridiculous, yet well-meaning suggestion. However, over the
next several months, I couldn’t get my friends advice out
of my head. Then one day when I was experiencing artist block,
a flash came through my brain to try creating a collage on top
of a motorcycle. Similar to a child coloring in the lines, I cut
out a magazine image of a motorcycle and started layering whimsical
images on top of the bike that mirrored the shape of each bike
part, like a coffee cup on top of the head light and a clock on
the front wheel. The outcome was my first 3-dimensional bike collage
called “Blue
Bike of Happiness”. A new art form was created, and now
I not only enjoyed my art, but it was also very successful as
well.
Fast forward to September 2008. During a
discussion with my boyfriend Robert, himself a biker, we brainstormed
how to expand the market for my bike collages. Then he gave me
my second piece of life changing advice. He said what bikers might
also want in art is something that represents the bike they themselves
ride, in addition to the whimsical bikes I had been creating.
So I went back to the studio, and instead of putting evening
gloves on handlebars, I took the actual bike parts, cut them
out, and experimented with ways to create a sculptural collage
using actual bike images. And Spirit Bikes was born.
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