#Art

The revolver which Vincent Van Gogh allegedly used to shoot himself has sold for almost three times more than its anticipated selling price. Sold in Paris last week for 130,000 Euros or $145,700 the revolver was said to be the pistol the troubled Dutch painter used to shoot himself almost 130 years ago.

Colombian sculptor, Doris Salcedo, has unveiled her latest work – a monument to mark the end of the guerrilla war which has racked Colombia for just over 50 years. The unconventional peace monument, entitled Fragmentos (Fragments), uses the scrap metal reclaimed from the thousands of small arms handed over by FARC rebels following the peace treaty signed in 2016. The monument is a floor made up of over 1,000 tiles made from the scrapped weapons.

I stumbled across Komatsu Factory from his custom Multicam samurai armor (shown below). While looking for more information about the custom Cordura armor, I discovered a treasure trove. Komatsu had documented some of the build of this custom sewn armor along with an amazing body of work in wooden gun replicas.

Based in both Belgium and the United States, a company called Legendary Firearms is working to reproduce classic-looking prints of historic firearms. Although pricing and other details have yet to be set, the upstart company hopes to have everything up and running for the holiday shopping season. Want a custom print of something unique or special? They may be able to accommodate you.

The next time I am back home, I am going to ask if I can flip through my old school notebooks. After following Pew Doodles on Instagram for a few weeks, I had a flood of memories taking me back to daydreaming in school while drawing all types of guns. From M16s to fantasy space blasters, I’m pretty sure I sketched them all.

While I will certainly complain about the, in my opinion, vast market of overdone Glocks, I am however a fan of the technical machining and treatments that go one behind the scenes to create the functional works of art. Modern multi-axis CNC equipment works wonders in metal, but lacks a certain definition for extreme small detail due to the requirement of a rotating tool. The same complaint can often be rendered for polymer products, which require said CNC machines to create their molds.

Say what one will about environmental protection and their beliefs about global warming, but on its face and from a purely logical perspective, recycling is good. Less trash goes into landfills and so on…

Well, I think I have just finished Christmas shopping for 90% of my friends and family. I recently stumbled across Crafted Ballistics, a small business that makes beautiful bullet and ammunition artwork worthy of prominent display in your home or office. Using ballistic gelatin to form perfectly expanded hollow points, a wide variety of calibers and cartridges can be embedded in clear and colored paperweights, knobs, handles, keychains and more.

Keomaka is an artist who has a series of firearm and military themed paintings. In collaboration with Jim Fuller and Travis Haley, the artist made a special Signature Series of paintings, which tell the stories of life, values and passion of Jim and Travis.

Tyler of Tigger Welding is a mechanic/welder/artist that takes scrap metal and turns it into art. Most of his work is with Engine pistons.

Colombian artist Federico Uribe uses recycled shells and brass to make sculptures as well as mosaics. His story is that he is taking items of war and pain and turning it into something beautiful. He does recognize the impact his art has and where it is shown. He is trying to draw attention to the conflicts in Colombia as opposed to making art as an homage to hunting and sport.

While many equate the burning of gunpowder with the crack of a contained explosion, those familiar with its chemical properties known that burning it unconstrained typically creates on a brief flash and fire. Taking advantage of this is Wyoming artist Danny Shervin, who started experimenting with it at college in Montana.

Its known to readers that I lament the bevvy of chitzy items that follow a firearms related theme. However, I am going to suspend this predilection to complain as the base threshold only goes lower and lower. In fact, going with the adage “If you can’t beat them, join them” I am now going to root for the most “moto” products if only to keep my sanity.

In yet another “ what can I add a piece of brass to, to make it cool” product,” The Mighty Pen Company has expanded its brass oriented product line to include .50 cal razors. Offered in two versions: a double-edge straight razor, and a Gillette Mach 3 adapter, the .50 Caliber BMG is ready for ones Big Manly Goatee.

An artist by the name of Lorin Michki has been making pen drawings of firearms for some years now, to combine his passion of shooting with his passion of art, and expressing the two together. I first heard of him through the various Facebook groups I’m apart of where he started posting some of his work. He has even had some success with showing them at local art galleries around his neck of the woods in West Virginia. The drawings are incredibly detailed, and the artist is a gun guy, so he does his best to represent the firearms he is drawing. Working from mostly images, his drawings of the guns by themselves are almost 1:1 in proportion, and are absolutely outstanding to look at and realize its not a photographic image, but a hand drawn piece of artwork. At this time he doesn’t have a website to showcase the drawings as he is working on one right now. However he does have his Facebook page, and if you’re interested in his work, you can contact him through there. He also does commission drawings, but I think this would depend on a case by case basis, and your location from him. I hope his career in firearms drawing continues into a successful career, and this is just the start.