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11/4/2021 Comments

Talking Art, Culture & Art Cars with Ellen & Integer hosted by Culture Club

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Listen to A Conversation with Ellen & James Sasso: Making Art
with Senior Art Director Jesús González
Culture Club
Link -
https://anchor.fm/culture-club5
Sponsored by:
integer the growth company.

What inspires art and other questions.
Does art choose the artist or the artist choose art?
Can Art Cars really make a positive difference in our modern lives and culture?

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Comments

11/4/2021 Comments

Art, Art Cars & the Beautification of our Urban Communities

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Cadillac Ranch on Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas where 10 vintage Cadillac cars are buried in the dirt of a field.

What is art? Is art important?
  We need art in our lives to enhance the subtle energies of humanity & hopefully bring us deep feelings of inspiration, empowerment, awe, joy & other emotions. Art is something that stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas through the senses. Whether experiencing the art or performing it, a beneficial energy is created in the process .

As the artist Pablo Picasso once stated; "Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life".

It's a best practice to experience forms of art that inspires us in many different way. Art can be a visionary form of objectification & create a healing stamp on the subconscious when experienced.

 One object today that is ubiquitous in our everyday life is the automobile/car or motorcar, which is used for transportation on roads. A relatively new creation of humanity as we know it, the year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the car when German inventor Karl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Of course there has been many many others produce manufacture cars since then & in very large quantities, spreading across the world even now through mass consumerism.

Cars are one of the leading causes of air pollution & climate change ... Passenger vehicles & commercial, are a major pollution contributor, producing significant amounts of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and other pollution. Vehicle pollutants harm our health and contain greenhouse gases that cause climate change. Burning gasoline and diesel fuel creates harmful byproducts like nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, benzene, and formaldehyde. In addition, vehicles emit carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas.

At some point in time after automobile mass productions became the norm & humans bought many cars, is the marriage of art & car; the Art Car. Art cars are sometimes but not always driven and owned by their creators, who are sometimes referred to as "Cartists."
The Art Car is a very interesting new genre in art history that could also be considered a form of ultimate Street Art, although it existed before this term was ever coined.

One definition we came up with (with help from internet) is -  An art car is an automobile vehicle that has had its appearance modified as an act of personal artistic expression.  An Art Car is basically a mixed media sculpture on wheels ( unless the wheels have been removed ) , a hand painted (or air brushed) expression on a canvas of metal, steel, plastic & rubber, sometimes utilizing 3d objects. 
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Beyond the 2D applications of paints,  3 dimensional objects can be affixed or even the whole car itself can be stripped down, reshaped,  and morphed into what is sometimes called Mutant Vehicles (more on that later).

An Art Car can be mobile & driven on roads or even a stationary object acting as an installation.

One example of stationary cars acting as outdoor Art Car sculpture is Cadillac Ranch on the road just West of Amarillo, Texas.  In 1974, a row of ten vintage tail fin Cadillac cars (1949 Club Sedan to the 1963 Sedan de Ville ) were half buried nose down into a dirt field along the Route 66 highway there.  These Great Monuments, we are told, represent America's hopes and dreams, art and commerce, materialism and spiritualism, folly and fame. Cadillac Ranch has since become a ritual road side attraction site for those who travel along the mother road. The remnants of the still buried cars are now covered in ever changing layers of bright colored spray paints and this installation also exists as a participatory event.

 In 1955, 70 years after the first 1886 automobile creation in Germany, Los Angeles artist Kenneth Howard aka Von Dutch ( 1929-1992) hand painted flames on a 1955  Mercedes 300 SL  owned by Earl Bruce. Von Dutch was inspired by the hand painted fearsome images & flames on WW2 fighter planes and he was part of the nascent pin striping hot rods/vehicle culture of Southern California. This particular  Mercedes was actually the first of it's kind stateside so the car itself was seen by most sports car guys as an absolute shrine to German ingenuity and technology. Like art, opinions can vary & some people found this to be "desecrating a shrine" and the art car version was not well received at the time, although surely it attracted great interest as art.

1955 Mercedes 300 SL by Von Dutch
1955 Mercedes 300 SL by Von Dutch
Alexander Calder version of 1975 BMW CSL
Alexander Calder version of 1975 BMW CSL

Carmaker BMW is a leader in many things automobile & this includes the culture of Art Cars, as they have been a trendsetter in it since at least 1975 when .American artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976) put his art style on two 1975 3.0 CSL racing cars,
The result wasn’t just a claim of the first Art Car, or that this car was raced at Le Mans in 1975, but the inauguration of BMW’s Art Cars as we know the series today.
Calder’s piece formed the foundations for BMW’s ‘Art Car’ collection and many other contemporary artists ( Andy Warhol, Sandro Chia, Ken Done, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney & others) have since given their hand to this oeuvre, as both official and unofficial versions.

In 1979  artist Frank Stella painted a BMW M1  Procar  as part of his "Polar Coordinates" art series. In 1987 Keith Haring painted a red BMW Z1 at an art gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany with his signature style and distinctive range of emblematic signs.

    In 1996 Dallas, Texas, artist Jimmy Sasso was tasked to paint a 1996 BMW 320i for a marketing promotion involving a popular radio station Using oil based mediums, the car took 3-4 days to complete this mixture of abstraction & hand drawn symbols.

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1996 BMW 320i Art Car painted by Sasso in Dallas, Texas.
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1965 Rolls Royce Phantom V Limousine owned by John Lennon

 John Lennon Rolls Royce John Lennon of the Beatles bought the 1965 Phantom V limousine before he even owned a driver’s license.  Originally black with black leather upholstery, Lennon grew bored of the all-black vehicle & he was inspired to commission a garish paint job in the Romany style. An artist named Steve Weaver completed the work in May 1967. The bill was £290, about $9,200 in today’s dollars.

     Here in 2021 Art Cars are emerging as a popular expressive art form and important as  a  beautification of our urban areas & roads in communities. Aside from the cultural enhancements  is the recycle aspect or idea of making beauty out of a utilitarian machine that is a major cause of Global Warming and is helping to destroy our planet we all live on.  Keeping these 10,20 & even beyond 30 year old cars alive and on the road is truly an art in itself. A labor of love, an art object.
    Through the power of art an up-cycle recycle process occurs to transform a lowly used air polluting car into a roving art statement to be enjoyed and appreciated by the many, without anyone going to a gallery or museum.  An old car can become elevated into an art object & generate happiness to others and help heal society through these creations as they rove around not as a mere car but as art too.
In present day cities, artists are helping to spread this inspiring tradition & elevate our consciousness through the arts & propagate good energies using cars as that expressive vehicle.

   A 1991 Chevrolet Blazer S10   -- This artwork titled Dream Warrior by Sasso, was  started in early 2020 to artfully help heal a society in fear & repression from events. This vehicle for art blends into the urban landscapes as well as organically into natural settings, yet the colors, art & visual story create a bridge for the viewer into the fantastical realm of art appreciations sometimes without even realizing. Free form drawings & brushwork create "energetic movement mixed with bright color and juxtapositions to inspire one into happiness".  the artist uses it as a vehicle to promote art sales & bring about art awareness as well as explore nature on road trips.

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1989 Mercedes Benz 500 SEL painted by ARTtogo.com in 2019 Los Angeles.
1989 Mercedes Benz 500 SEL painted by ARTtogo.com in 2019 Los Angeles.

      Swirling lines into organic shapes and symbols, writings & trans cultural surrealism adorn a 1989 Mercedes Benz 500 SEL that was painted in 2019 & sometimes roams the streets of Los Angeles getting 8 mpg but drives really great, smoothly sailing down the 405 freeway or stuck in traffic to the beaches. This Art Car generates much fanfare from viewers and inspires all to witness the greatness of art in our communities.

-- All Mutant Vehicles are Art Cars but not all Art Cars are Mutant Vehicles. -

One unique genre of the Art Car, is the Mutant Vehicles of Burning Man.  Burning Man, comprised of Black Rock City, a temporary art city which emerges in the sometimes hostile environment of the Black Rock Desert, a remote landscape in Nevada.
    A yearly event taking place over 8 days in late August, at least since the year 1991 at this location, Burning Man features various modes of camping, lots of people offering fun among large sculptural forms, performance art, sculpture installations, as well as Art Cars called Mutant Vehicles which roam the areas night & day, lit up with light, flames or even lasers & carrying people around while sometimes blaring loud music.
     With a speed limit of 5 mph, these mutants come in all sizes and shapes as they adorn the beautiful surrealistic flat desert called the Playa, an ancient dry lake bed made of hard packed white sand that sometimes blows up into sudden dust storms with white out conditions.
As NPR once reported, "Once considered an underground gathering for bohemians and free spirits of all stripes, Burning Man has since evolved into a destination for social media influencers, celebrities and the Silicon Valley elite."
    A Leave No Trace extreme camping event, Burning Man is mainly a huge art thing encouraging creative self expression & general well being. A unique cultural experience of sharing amongst like minded humans who like to laugh and have fun in an absurd atmosphere of art. Everyone is an artist and encouraged to participate in whatever form they wish. Dancing is an art. Hospitality is an art. Sleeping is an art. Fashion is an art. Photography. Cooking too.
  An acrobat balances on an Art Car/Mutant Vehicle called Playa Taxi. This 2004 Suzuki Aerio was painted in Los Angeles & seen on the playa.

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A 2004 Suzuki Aerio transformed into an Art Car at Burning Man by ARTtogo.com
Boeing 747 turned into the worlds largest art car at Burning Man Project 2017.
Boeing 747 turned into the worlds largest art car at Burning Man Project 2017.

The 747 Project, a giant Boeing 747, the world’s most iconic airplane, this is a 1985 Varig cargo conversion that once carried passengers in Brazil. This plane in 2017 was transformed into the largest art car mutant vehicle  on earth.
   The goal is to transform the plane into a new kind of vehicle inside which dreams, inspired by the same spirit of flight that took the Wright brothers to the skies, can come alive. The jet invites people inside for a “journey through life towards one’s future” & also hosts all night dance parties with music.
Art Car? Now you know.

Thank you for reading and hope you have learned something about art that you did not know before. Please add comments if you like Art Cars & want to see more of them.

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1/2/2020 Comments

RETURN TO ORDER 2020

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(left image) LUMINOUS BLOOMING collage & acrylic on canvas. 36" X 36" X 1 1/2" (91.44 X 91.44 X 3.8 cm)--- (right image) THE SEA collage & acrylic on canvas, 36" X 36" X 1 1/2" (91.44 X 91.44 X 3.8 cm)
Happy New Years 2020 with health, wealth and much great art in your life.
Around 100 years ago in art, was the  Return to Order movement and here in the first hours of 2020, our last two paintings of the  finals days in 2019 could be considered clear descendants of this distant art past. 
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 The
 Luminous Blooming, ( top left) a dreamy meditation in color featuring red roses in a pot, either floating or seated in front of a sea of eyes backdrop. Cozy and tight at the same time, the floating eyes reflect back at the viewer looking at the painterly roses.
The rose is considered a symbol of balance. It expresses promise, new beginnings, hope and is considered the highest vibrational flower on the planet. 
 Eyes are probably the most important symbolic sensory organ. They can represent clairvoyance, omniscience, and/or a gateway into the soul. Other qualities that eyes are commonly associated with are: intelligence, light, vigilance, moral conscience, and truth.  
The Sea, ( top right) a collage portrait, also contains eyes and a floating rose along with some Tibetan style clouds.

Luminous Blooming and  The Sea,  both by Los Angeles based painter James Sasso,,contain the use of his fluid drawing style and canvas collage, with certain characteristics of Surrealism, Though wholly original, modern, they both could hold a certain feel of nostalgia for the Return to Order art of the early decades of the 1900's.
 The return to order (French: Retour à l'ordre) was a European art movement that followed the First World War, rejecting the extreme avant-garde art of the years up to 1918 and taking its inspiration from traditional art instead. The movement was a reaction to the war. The return to order was associated with a revival of classicism and realistic painting, among other styles.

Two artists who helped to define some revolutionary developments in the visual arts in the opening decades of the 1900's were Henri Matisse (born 31 December 1869 – died 3 November 1954) and Pablo Picasso  (born 25 October 1881 – died 8 April 1973), arguably produced some of their finest artworks during this era and after.  


Both artists living in France, Matisse was known for his use of color (Colorism & Fauvism) and his original fluid drawing style, while Picasso in the 1910's and early 1920's made artworks described as a NeoClassical style, along with hints of Surrealism but also new off shoot methods in the genre of Cubism, referred to as both Synthetic Cubism and Crystal Cubism. 

Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century and the Synthetic variant of Picasso, noted for the first use of collage in oil paintings. To collage means to "to glue" or "to stick together", a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts but also in music. Picasso glued bits of fabric, paper and newspaper unto the canvas surface in his cubist paintings. 

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12/18/2019 Comments

Be In-Spiraled by Monochromatic Art Leggings

By: Jazmine Michelle
art-to-go blue dreams yoga leggings
Art to Go Blue Dreams Yoga Leggings. Wear the vibe.
We at Art-to-go are all about creating an experience. Even the creation of these artworks are an experience in the exercise. The patterns you see in these Art Leggings come from a stream-of-consciousness style of painting. Many of the forms are inspired from things found in different cultures as well as our own visual linguistics we conjure. We've found inspiration from Mayan, Japanese, Persian, Chinese and Native American styles, among many other artistic symbols used throughout the world, mixing it with our own visual writings.

​We love immersing in these images and then sitting down and putting paintbrush to blank surface and just letting the hand move. There is a healing and calming element to this practice of art. Think of the Japanese concept of the Zen garden. The idea is just to take the sand and let your hand move freely, guiding your implement to create temporary shapes. The final piece is not the goal, as it can get wiped away when you are finished. 

In the same vein, the final image is not the idea when sitting down to create this piece. The experience of letting the hand move lets the mind relax, allowing the work to create itself in the present moment of time. The ACTION is the point of the flow. The energy that comes from the brushstrokes is what translates the energetic something through the art piece unto the viewer.

Some of the elements involved are shapes that are found in nature, which is why they come across in cultures around the world and throughout any human history. Man is forever inspired by the natural world in his many vocations, be it science, engineering, ART, religion or any other philosophies. Look closely at the leggings and you will find many SPIRALS and swirls. Look closely at nature and you will also find the spirals in many ways, which is what helps connect us into the swirls of artful magic here born.

The spiral is an important philosophical concept, reminding us that life moves in this way where we always come back to a place close to our origin. We are never quite back to where we started, but we come close to that point over and over again, each time from a slightly different perspective.

This is like the experience of creating art. In our process each painterly mark is distinct and unique, never making the same thing twice, never having the same experience of making it twice. We will come back to similar concepts and ideas, maybe touching our origin again and again, but each time we will come from a new perspective of expressionistic modernity.
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"[Monochrome painting is] an open window to freedom, the possibility of being immersed in the immeasurable existence of color" - Yves Klein
PictureART to Go Yoga Leggings Blue Dreams.


 Color is an incredibly important element in our artwork too. The monochromatic use of blue in these art leggings relates to the works of the artist Yves Klein (1928-1962), who actually has an entire shade of blue named after him - International Klein Blue!

Klein was popularized in the mid 1900 century1950s-60's, finding that he wanted to only explore blue in his artworks. He would create entire canvases, shapes, worlds only using this one color. Called a pioneer of the art world, it is not hard to recognize how people must have felt while looking at his pieces for the first time.

The psychology of color is well-explored. Blue is peaceful. Klein's idea of being "immersed in the immeasurable existence of color" is so apparent when you are looking at a figurative ocean of blue canvas. It must have been such a revelation that such a simple, primary color could create such a powerful sense of peace and calm and wonder.  

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We don't use Klein's official color in our monochromatic leggings, preferring to mix our own for many years, that we name Sasso Blue for this artwork called Blue Dreams, but we found the same immersive sensation while painting the art and we hope to engender similar sensation for the people who choose to wear them and for all of the people who encounter these art leggings out in the world.  Let this art envelope you in your yoga practice or any other life experience.

​Like the spiral, these are colors found in nature and it brings us back to our primal sense of connection with the natural world and with each other.

We hope that you find joy and peace in these wearable art pieces and that they make you feel always 
​IN-SPIRALED (I love this word)!. Our unique art is made for you.

***We are also excited to be working on other colors for our monochromatic legging designs. Stay tuned to find out what our next color in this series is going to be! They will be unveiled very soon!
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​See you in the flow!

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12/16/2019 Comments

A Duct Taped Banana & why you should care.

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Duct taped banana art on clothing.

 Have you heard of the duct taped banana?
Have you seen it? 
Probably not in person unless you are artsy and were at this years Miami Art Basel 2019. This "art", a banana duct taped to the wall of a gallery, appeared as part of an installation dubbed “Comedian”,created by artist Maurizio Cattelan. Three buyers paid between $120,000 and $150,000 for 3 limited-edition pieces of this concept, which came with a single banana, a certificate of authenticity and instructions on how to replace the fruit.
Amazing & such great spiritual value.
Surely he isn't the first artist person to duct tape a banana to a wall or be the only human being who can do that but why are people even talking about it?  Maybe that even makes it great art in a way as it generates such dialogue.

High concept fine art or low brow stupidity?  Some news reports have even have labeled it an art world scam.

For the uninitiated reading, the duct taped banana is considered to be a piece of Conceptual art, a movement along with Pop Art, formed in mid century 1900's NYC.
Conceptual, as in the "idea" itself or concept being the important aspect of the artwork, less so than the actual art itself or renditions. 
Pop Art is inspired by both popular & commercial imagery, as well as the everyday mundane object but also focuses on production methods and the whole business of being an artist as an art producing factory.  Appropriation is another key word associated with Pop as well as manipulating the media to write about it, thus marketing the art.

Both these American bred art movements have roots in 1910-1920's DaDa movement which originated in Paris. DaDa is focused on absurdity, articulated sometimes in nonsensical ways and satirical to the point of whimsy. Using theater, poetry, painting, drawing and music as an answer to the human horrors of war during that time in Europe.
They also drew inspiration from banal everyday objects that would possibly not be considered art, unless they tell you it is, such as Duchamp's aptly titled: Fountain ( a way of saying urinal or toilet something to piss in)

 On April 9th, 1917, just over 100 years ago,  Marcel Duchamp achieved what was perhaps the most brilliant and absurd art event of the 20th century by submitting an upside down bathroom urinal titled, Fountain, as his art piece for an exhibition and signing it R. Mutt. 

From an editorial at the time:  
“Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view—created a new thought for that object.” 

And on and on it goes even to this new day in our lives of the duct taped banana.


Which brings us to our very own blessed duct taped banana artwork, titled, The Hummingbird, available  on t-shirts and comfy hoodies. 

This is just for you from Art-to-Go.
​These are made to order and we made it really beautiful for you to wear plus there is free standard shipping right now.

 When you wear the duct taped banana Hummingbird, be it at home or in the store, bar or cafe, there is an aesthetically invoked communication going on via the trans cultural significance of the art, sometimes silent but a connection and something is happening with the viewer based on them seeing it as well as you wearing it.  A visual linguistic without words which sometimes leads to discussion with others or not.
Art in whatever forms, can be a bridge to something higher in all of us and our art acts as a bridge for positive energy, deep thought, communication, laughter or anything to commence a new experience in life, even if only for a moment.  That is what we have come to call art.
Perhaps even talking about it helps too. 

On the method used...we bought some bananas at Trader Joes for .19 cents each, duct taped one to the wall and then took a photo of our beautiful one of a kind banana with it's unique distinct markings.  This is our photo of a banana  and we hope that you like it.
Hurry ! Limited Edition ! Our prices are always subject to change.


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11/14/2019 Comments

Texas Road Trip Leggings

By Jazmine Michelle
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   "I love road trips. You get into this Zen rhythm; throw the sense of time out the window" - Miriam Toews

  Our Art-to-Go leggings tell stories. In this case, the  large
Texas Road Trip ( 8' tall x 9' wide x 2" thick  mixed media on canvas) painting was a commissioned piece meant to tell the story of driving through the great state of Texas. Texas is the birthplace of the Art-to-Go concept - long ago, we started out in a small store front studio in Dallas before much later relocating to California - and road tripping was one of the most iconic experiences you could have there. When people road trip across America, they often talk about wishing to avoid Texas. They want things to see and they want a lot of towns they can stop into.

But to us, the road trip is about one thing - THE ROAD.

Texas has such a surreal landscape. The vistas are spectacular and the fact that you can drive long, long distances without seeing civilization is food for the wandering soul. In this painting, you see the state being held up on a billboard. You get the sense of a wide open landscape within a wide open landscape of mesas and the plateau.
 The sky is huge and the land goes on forever in either direction, and in craving a road trip, you are craving more of that.

A road trip across Texas is satisfying for the human need for space and quiet and time, it gives you the chance to see and feel the vast world that exists outside your everyday life.

In creating these yoga leggings, we want to bring this iconic experience into your everyday life. This sense of freedom that comes from a road trip doesn't need to be reserved for long, nomadic trips. A road trip can be an hour-long commute, or even a morning trip to your favorite beach, park or yoga studio.

These leggings remind us that the Zen we get from the road trip can come with us and stay alive in our everyday lives.

To get a pair of your own high quality yoga leggings with this vibrant art, go to our store for both offerings, Capri style & long version.  Also available in cool men's leggings.
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10/31/2019 Comments

Body Painting at Kushstock Festival!

By: Jazmine Michelle
Art to Go
Wonderful & fashionably stylish body painting by Art-to-go.
We are excited to announce that ART-to-Go will be at Kushstock Festival in Socal! This Saturday, November 2nd, we will be at the  Kanha Gummies booth painting.  ART-to-Go has been creating signature tiger stripe designs and in honor of this, we will be hand painting tiger stripes on people for Kanha!

Turning people into works of art is a beautiful way of making our designs come alive. So come down to Kushstock, get some candies, and see us in action!
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