Wednesday, 3. June 2009
Pixeleye Feature im amerikanischen Ol´Skool Rodz Magazine!
pixeleye, 14:50h
Yeah, mein zweites Artist-Magazin-Feature in Amerika! Im bekanntesten amerikanischen Hot Rod Magazine "Ol´Skool Rodz" bin ich in der Juli Ausgabe 2009 mit 4 Seiten vertreten. www.olskoolrodz.com
The Pixeleye: Dirk Behlau
By Anna Marco
Art & photos © 2008 Dirk Behlau
If you haven't heard of him, you've been living under a rock in the United States. Dirk Behlau is one of the most exciting photogs in the European hot rod scene today. His deep angle/close-up style is nerve wrecking. Get any closer to the spinning wheels in his imagery and you might a well throw yourself under the tire. His motto "Don't talk, create!" comes from personal experience. He is the guy shooting from inside the action, not beside it.
Pixeleye is known to be addicted not only to pixels but fast rockin´ cars from the golden age of racing: Mopars, hot rods and massively overpowered race cars. Anything loud with a kick-ass-attitude inspires him. Think a liquid mix of high octane Motorhead/Social Distortion/Metallica fueling a 3D/punk/Dada/Fluxus art inspired drag race. It's a starting point for performance art. High Performance. Flip thru the pages of his photo book "Speed Kings" and see for yourself. Then flip thru his second book "Hot Rod Empire" for more.
Art for Breakfast
Born in Cologne, Germany, his career began at age six, when Dirk won a painting competition. By high school, he had created logos for bands/school theatre plays and was lucky enough to land himself in the class of a "great art teacher who studied under Joseph Beuys, an important 20th Century German artist". After graduating, the self taught, visual freelancer trained himself in graphics. In 1999, he ate HTML & CompuServe for breakfast and never turned back to non-dimensional flavored fare. His roster of international clients & global brands includes Canon, Burger King, Saturn Media, Carrera Toys, Toyo Tires and Sony Playstation.
Today, Dirk's talented pixeleye is the retinal counterpart to a Canon 5D digital SLR camera with a Canon EF 28-135/3.5-5-6 IS USM objective + two 8 Gigabyte SanDisk Extreme III Compact Flashcards. He shoots mainly in RAW format, uses two Macintosh computers/Macbooks with Apple cinema widescreen displays, a huge stack of extra hard drives, Photoshop and some other tools.
Art for Lunch
Dirk's design background enables him to create an authentic recognizable style of photography. His "Less text, more photos" approach is ironic since he never wanted to be an artist but surmises "it just happened as a child and developed". Fortunately, art is what he wants to do, allows him to be his own boss and he loves his job, otherwise he would probably be a professional videogame player, watch thrash movies and collect 1970-80's action toys from Japan as a living.
Last year his "modern-nostalgic" work exhibited at Bottrop's Kustom Kulture Show (Bottrop, Germany) and the SINS Hot Rod & Kustom Show (Belgium). See www.pixeleye.de/artshows. For Dirk, "art is 24/7" he never sleeps; it pays the bills.
Art for Dinner
As head of his own design studio, "Pixeleye Interactive", Dirk has produced and directed hot rod DVD's (www.turtmann-dvd.com) and "Girls on Film" a download of pinup models for iPhone & iPod packages. See photo database at: www.hotrodhell.de. Other projects include a line of racing apparel (Pixeleye Racewear), retail merchandise, and Pixeleye Supercharged Beer (www.hotrodbeer.de)! His online store "The Filthy Rats" (www.filthyrats.com) offers custom prints, t-shirts, autographed items, pin up calendars (with Zoe Scarlett, Sweetness and Maureen Morris), stickers, patches, a Pixeleye paper toy and much more.
Dirk believes the recipe for his success is the School of Life. The soundtrack for that project is an actual song and music video called "The Pixeleye" by "The Lonesome Dragstrippers" now available on CD and MP3. Famous last words from a man who eats art for breakfast, lunch and dinner? "It's OK to have idols but try to develop your own style - don't imitate. FTW and believe in yourself."
Websites: www.pixeleye.de & www.myspace.com/pixeleye.
Merch: www.kustomkulture.info & www.filthyrats.com.
The Pixeleye: Dirk Behlau
By Anna Marco
Art & photos © 2008 Dirk Behlau
If you haven't heard of him, you've been living under a rock in the United States. Dirk Behlau is one of the most exciting photogs in the European hot rod scene today. His deep angle/close-up style is nerve wrecking. Get any closer to the spinning wheels in his imagery and you might a well throw yourself under the tire. His motto "Don't talk, create!" comes from personal experience. He is the guy shooting from inside the action, not beside it.
Pixeleye is known to be addicted not only to pixels but fast rockin´ cars from the golden age of racing: Mopars, hot rods and massively overpowered race cars. Anything loud with a kick-ass-attitude inspires him. Think a liquid mix of high octane Motorhead/Social Distortion/Metallica fueling a 3D/punk/Dada/Fluxus art inspired drag race. It's a starting point for performance art. High Performance. Flip thru the pages of his photo book "Speed Kings" and see for yourself. Then flip thru his second book "Hot Rod Empire" for more.
Art for Breakfast
Born in Cologne, Germany, his career began at age six, when Dirk won a painting competition. By high school, he had created logos for bands/school theatre plays and was lucky enough to land himself in the class of a "great art teacher who studied under Joseph Beuys, an important 20th Century German artist". After graduating, the self taught, visual freelancer trained himself in graphics. In 1999, he ate HTML & CompuServe for breakfast and never turned back to non-dimensional flavored fare. His roster of international clients & global brands includes Canon, Burger King, Saturn Media, Carrera Toys, Toyo Tires and Sony Playstation.
Today, Dirk's talented pixeleye is the retinal counterpart to a Canon 5D digital SLR camera with a Canon EF 28-135/3.5-5-6 IS USM objective + two 8 Gigabyte SanDisk Extreme III Compact Flashcards. He shoots mainly in RAW format, uses two Macintosh computers/Macbooks with Apple cinema widescreen displays, a huge stack of extra hard drives, Photoshop and some other tools.
Art for Lunch
Dirk's design background enables him to create an authentic recognizable style of photography. His "Less text, more photos" approach is ironic since he never wanted to be an artist but surmises "it just happened as a child and developed". Fortunately, art is what he wants to do, allows him to be his own boss and he loves his job, otherwise he would probably be a professional videogame player, watch thrash movies and collect 1970-80's action toys from Japan as a living.
Last year his "modern-nostalgic" work exhibited at Bottrop's Kustom Kulture Show (Bottrop, Germany) and the SINS Hot Rod & Kustom Show (Belgium). See www.pixeleye.de/artshows. For Dirk, "art is 24/7" he never sleeps; it pays the bills.
Art for Dinner
As head of his own design studio, "Pixeleye Interactive", Dirk has produced and directed hot rod DVD's (www.turtmann-dvd.com) and "Girls on Film" a download of pinup models for iPhone & iPod packages. See photo database at: www.hotrodhell.de. Other projects include a line of racing apparel (Pixeleye Racewear), retail merchandise, and Pixeleye Supercharged Beer (www.hotrodbeer.de)! His online store "The Filthy Rats" (www.filthyrats.com) offers custom prints, t-shirts, autographed items, pin up calendars (with Zoe Scarlett, Sweetness and Maureen Morris), stickers, patches, a Pixeleye paper toy and much more.
Dirk believes the recipe for his success is the School of Life. The soundtrack for that project is an actual song and music video called "The Pixeleye" by "The Lonesome Dragstrippers" now available on CD and MP3. Famous last words from a man who eats art for breakfast, lunch and dinner? "It's OK to have idols but try to develop your own style - don't imitate. FTW and believe in yourself."
Websites: www.pixeleye.de & www.myspace.com/pixeleye.
Merch: www.kustomkulture.info & www.filthyrats.com.
