The Motorcycle Art of Greg
Inkmann
Text and photos courtesy
of
Greg Inkmann. Copyright
© 2007.
All rights reserved.
Just when you think you've seen it all, along
comes something like these amazing works of
motorcycle art.
Or is it sculpture? We honestly didn't know
where or how to classify this article, but we thought
our readers would enjoy learning more about Greg
Inkmann's interesting works.
Greg sent the following:
I am 55 years old and have been involved with
aviation my entire life. I am also a executive chef.
Through out my career as a chef, I did many ice
sculptures and grew to love creating sculpture. I
returned to college and graduated in 1999 with a
Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture. I also did post
graduate work in object preservation and conservation,
exhibit layout and design at the University of
Kansas Museum Science program.
I hold a private pilots license and am president of
our local radio control club. Professionally I do
sculpture, restoration, conservation, and art lighting
(fiber optic, ultra violet and infra red sensitive) for
galleries, museums and individual art collectors.
I have
designed and built several display cases for the Combat
Air Museum in Topeka as well as displaying my artwork
there. I utilize a wide and varied palette of media. I
use my aviation experience to stimulate my art works. My
art tries to bring substance to the inexpressible beauty
and mysticism of flight and to capture a tiny bit of the
wonder that all things aviation bring me.
As an artist I express in sculptural form my
fascination with flight. My art work reflects irony and
whimsy. The color, shape and three dimensional movement
of aircraft are integral to the design and execution of
my aviation art.
The impetus for these motorcycle forms came from a
flight I made in a Stearman biplane in 1994. The thing
about a Stearman is that the cockpit is open not
enclosed like all the other aircraft I had flown. I
could feel the wind and smell the exhaust.
I got to do
a loop and a low pass. The loop was phenomenal, I saw
the ground disappear and then all I saw was sky. When
the ground reappeared it was in the wrong place! The sky
was on the bottom and the ground was on the top. Then
all I could see was the ground. Finally, things came back
to normal with the sky on top and the ground on the
bottom.
Whew! I was so impressed with that flight that I
knew I had to do some kind of artwork to memorialize and
capture that feeling. I wanted to have that feeling of
wind and movement again and have it on a regular basis.
Now a Stearman costs around $125,000 plus upkeep and I
knew that wasn’t going to happen. Besides that, you have
to go out to an airport to fly it, and I wanted something
at home (I’m a big fan of instant gratification).
My
brother had an old '74 Honda. Given my particular brand
of logic I thought, well, the motorcycle would give me
the wind part along with leaning left and right. All I
have to do is design the looks of a Stearman around it.
I drove up to Wisconsin (I live in Topeka, Kansas) and
hauled the motorcycle back. I had never ridden a cycle before
so I practiced and got good enough to pass the test for
a license. Next I made a mock-up using foam and started
cutting up wood.
Lightness and strength are mainstays in aviation. The
more you weigh, the more power you need. Here I didn’t
have to worry about lightness so I started with particle
board and added a spar and split ribs. The covering is a
shrinkable nylon fabric. I used acrylic lacquer and a two
part urethane finish coat.
The flying wires are
functional. They can be adjusted with turnbuckles. The
bike fell over once; it perched on the lower wingtip and
nothing broke. This was my first try so there are a few
extra screw holes. I’m not perfect and neither are the
bikes but I think they came out quite well.
Both cycles
have been in several art shows and was very well
received. The Honda picture with the helmet is the one
shown in art shows.
I fly full scale and model aircraft so I thought
about lift and what role it might play in this exercise. A model that has the wing area I was contemplating
building provides about 20 pounds of lift at 50 mph. That didn’t seem to be a problem but, just to be sure, I
put in some negative incidence in the the wings to
provide down force (like spoilers on a car). You can
feel the Honda working hard at 55. The only way this
thing will fly is off a cliff.
While riding the Honda, I heard comments like "Here comes the
Red Baron" and I thought " I can do that".
The idea of a Fokker tri plane with all that red and
black and chrome was exciting. The Suzuki I got had
fallen over in winter and the instrument panel had
shattered. I rebuilt the panel completely of wood to go
with the nature of the bike. I wanted to hide the gas
cap so I created a compartment in the wing. It has a
hinged lid accented with gold leaf. Just to look at this
bike in the sun is a treat.
I ride these bikes on an irregular basis. The ride
feels pretty much like any other motorcycle. Obviously,
I don’t ride them on the freeway or at speeds over 50. On one windy day (20-30mph) when the wind was blowing
from the left, I had to lean a little to the left.
I am happy with these sculptures and plan to do more,
perhaps a Spad with camouflage or an all-black Stealth.
For more information, my webpage is
www.biplaneventures.com. In case you're
interested, the Honda will be sold starting with eBay on Dec 3,
2006 (7 day auction) or by auction January 11, 2007 at Las
Vegas by
MidAmerica Auctions.
"Contact" Blue and yellow Stearman biplane -1974
Honda 450
"Kämpher nicht ein Liebhaber" (fighter not a lover).
Red Fokker tri-plane - 1983 Suzuki Tempter 650
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