I spotted Mr. Hall's photography displayed in the windows of the abandoned Good Chevrolet Ron Goode Toyota building, downtown in the Island That Rust Forgot. Once you're done checking out these highlights, you can view many more from the Girls With Cars series here.

Ms Shuweet
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Caught In A Dream
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Manders At The Duel
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Mercedes 300SL Wrong Turn
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Monika Road Devils
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Pheenix Van Sparks 2
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Rebecca With Witchcrafty 6
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Roxy
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Sarah Strangers
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Shaelynn
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Sugar And The Grand Inquisitor
© Philip Hall Images 2009

Sugar Ready For Her Closeup Mr Deville
© Philip Hall Images 2009

For the last week, three of my friends and I have been huffing gas and rampaging with a forklift to bring you this art installation. Constructed from 11 Aprilia RSV 1000 Rs and one Aprilia RSV4 Factory, the three-dimensional ribbon runs throughout the 26x3 gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, allowing visitors to interact with and examine the experience of riding a fast motorcycle to its limits.

Conceived by Sam Strauss-Malcolm and Tyler Poniatowski, Stop/Action is presented by Hell For Leather, where I cheat on cars by night as the editor.

Stop/Action will be open to the public from 2-7pm everyday from October 2 through October 11. It's located at 26 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY. [via Hell For Leather]

After all, I live in Alameda, just a few blocks from the easily identifiable neighborhood in the southeastern corner of the island in which so many of Bechtle's paintings are set, so all I had to do was perform a bit of detective work and a couple miles of walking. Not so for relentless French artist Philippe Agostini, who appears to have invested hundreds of hours of Google Street View time to locate the settings of several of Bechtle's best works.

Because of my fascination with Bechtle's work, my posts show up pretty high in search results for the painter's name, and so Mr. Agostini decided to contact me. My French is nonexistent- pretty much limited to transmission automatique- and Mr. Agostini's English has its limitations, but eventually he was able to make it clear that he wanted me to get him some photos of the setting for Bechtle's 2006 painting Six Houses On Mound Street. So I did.

Next thing I know, he's got what appears to be a heavy-duty analysis of Bechtle's work on his website, complete with cryptic diagrams.
[Appeau Vert]

We provided wallpaper images for your phone, but there was a troubling lack of junkyardness in those choices. So, I've picked out some of my favorite rusty, crusty junkyard shots and resized them to fit the most common monitor resolutions (you guys running OS/2 on CGA monochrome screens are SOL, sorry to say).

1974 Toyota Corolla wagon
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1965 Mercedes-Benz 190c
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1967 Volvo Amazon
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1966 Dodge Monaco
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1966 Dodge Dart
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1978 Dodge Magnum
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1982 Volvo 244
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1949 Ford
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1972 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser
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1968 Mercury Monterey
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Junkyard Monks
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1967 Mercury Cougar
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1969 Renault 16
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BMW 2002, Toyota Corolla GT-S, Triumph Spitfire
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1970 Triumph Spitfire
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1965 Dodge Custom 880
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1974 BMW 2002
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1974 BMW 2002
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1968 Jeep Gladiator J-3000
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1968 Oldsmobile Delmont 88
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1961 Citroën ID19
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1975 Triumph Spitfire
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1976 Peugeot 504
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1990 Jaguar XJ-S
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1968 Peugeot 404
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1973 Dodge Coronet
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1972 Ford Country Squire
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1972 Volvo 145
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1971 Cadillac Eldorado
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1988 BMW 750iL
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1963 Volvo 1800S
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1973 Plymouth Satellite
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1974 Ford Gran Torino
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1966 Ford Galaxie
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1963 Dodge 880
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1978 Peugeot 504
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1971 Honda 600
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1964 Rambler American
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1963 Rambler Classic
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1978 AMC Concord
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1959 Ford Thunderbird
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1959 Ford Thunderbird
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1974 Datsun 610 wagon
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1969 Saab 99
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1978 Pontiac Firebird
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1976 Ford Capri
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1975 MG Midget
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1979 Jeep Cherokee
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1998 Chrysler Sebring
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1980 Datsun 280ZX
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Yes, this 1986 Yugo convertible (go here if the listing disappears) suffered some Kentucky hail damage, so the car's owner (the seller's grandfather) "got the idea of turning it into a WhaleMobile off of some cartoon, and he took his crazy idea and ran with it." Sadly, the seller possesses "an inexplicable fear of these evil creatures" and must sell… and his loss is your gain! It has a functioning blowhole with water pump, and the tail even features aero-enhancing manual controls. This fine machine got some attention on the 24 Hours Of LeMons forums, but it appears that no team has what it takes to put it on a race track. That's shameful, but we know you have what it takes to make it your daily driver. Come on, Yugo Whalemobile!
[Louisville Craigslist]

''I save everything,'' Steve told The New York Times a couple of years ago. ''If I didn't make stuff out of it, it would have been in the crusher, or it would have ended up in a Toyota.''

Steve was originally inspired to become an artist as a child, when, during a visit to the Museum of Modern Art, he saw a baboon head made from two toy cars. Many years later he was hauling junk away from his father's estate when he caught a glimpse of the piled up parts in his rear view mirror. Suddenly seeing possibilities, he never made it to the junkyard and has kept busy turning old parts into art ever since. [via Picasa and NYTimes]

Rockwell X-30 SSTO built from '50s Pontiac parts.

1956 DeSoto "Firedome."

1946 Plymouth Sedan "Bubble Car."

"Galaxie"

We're happy to add Mr. Gray's shots to Jalopnik Car Photography Canon, which includes the work of such photographers as Dave Glass, Martin Taylor, Andrew Bush, Troy Paiva, and Paul Novak. Here's what Mr. Gray has to say about his American Cars project:

As the project grew, I realized I was approaching the parked cars in the same way a photographer would shoot a portrait. Whether gleaming and restored, or beat-up and deteriorating, each car had its own character and story. The American landscape serving as backdrop is also part of the story of these cars, which were mostly produced here in the U.S. before the decline of Detroit's big automotive companies. I photographed the cars as I found them, using mostly medium format cameras, as well as some large format and digital cameras.

[Kevin Gray Photography, Order prints from Etsy]

The event took place in 2005 and clogged up roads for more than five hours. Photos of the event are now on display as part of an exhibit entitled "Auto. Dream And Material" on display at the Laboral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial in Gijon, Spain. [Laboral Centro De Arte via Inhabitat]

Mr. & Mrs. Pump
These must be lawyers. Photo Credit: David Clow

Street Corner Living Room
This Dutch street scene is either a commentary on life in transit or an angry ex with a sense of humor. Photo Credit: Material Boy @ Flickr

Loch Ness Monster Crossing
We didn't realize Nessie was living in France, but a summer in Paris is just what it needed.

Deer Blind Towers
This series of Deer Blinds outside a Cabela's in Buda, Texas isn't intentionally surreal road art until the bicycle is added. Photo Credit: Chainsawpanda @ Flickr

Families Crossing
Seriously, they're in a hurry. Emsef @ Flickr

Traffic Barrel Monster
Have we mentioned how much we love the traffic barrel monster? Totally worth going to jail over.

Don't Mess With Their Ecosystem
Seriously, those Kangaroos are going to jack you up.
Photo Credit: Grilled Baby Pandas @ Flickr

UCI, after all, was the place where Chris Burden got his start, and his influence still loomed large in the Art Department. Naturally, I fit right in with this bunch of loons who thought that nailing oneself to the roof of a Beetle was a great idea, and I soon ditched the boring Mechanical Engineering Department for an unemployment-guaranteeing Studio Art/Creative Writing double major. When I wasn't siphoning gas from my '68 Mercury Cyclone, I was doing performance pieces such as "Our Friend The Carburetor," which I just extracted from a long-forgotten VHS tape. This piece, circa 1988, was done for a class taught by artist and longtime LA Weekly writer Linda Frye Burnham; I believe the assignment was to use movement and props in some sort of ritual ceremony.

So, I press-ganged one of my friends into service, xerox-enlarged a couple of carburetor masks (they appear to be Motorcraft 4-barrels, no doubt from my Cyclone's shop manual), dug up an old Holley 600, a couple of wrenches, a bottle of Mickey's Big Mouth, and a huge syringe, and "Our Friend The Carburetor" was ready to go. Hey, you go with what you know! Does this help to explain why I'm so happy creating 24 Hours Of LeMons penalties?

Most of the time, I'm not a big fan of the "glue shit all over the car" school of art car creation- I feel that it's a calculated diss of the concept of the automobile itself in many cases- but when it's this extreme I can't help but approve. We're talking 10,000 pens here, not some half-assed glue-gun-and-50-army-men job. You can learn more about artist Costas Schuler at his website.

For much more comprehensive Maker Faire art car coverage, take a look at Dwegmull's photos on his site.

Christian Pearce isn't just some random illustrator with a knack for unusual media. The New Zealand-based man has amazing talent as proven by his employment at Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop, creating the dinosaurs for the most recent King Kong movie. Weta might sounds familiar to some of you as this is the same production studio that brought us the real-life Warthog, the gun-turret-wielding off-road beast from the popular XBOX franchise, Halo.

Pearce's work has become so popular in his kiwi hometown that he was featured in an exhibition titled 99DS this past February in Wellington alongside fellow Nintendo DS Colors artist, Greg Broadmore. [Drawn! via ChristianPearce.blogspot, 99DS]

I found the shot, all right, but I forgot all about my Island Auto Movie 1984 piece once I took a look at the rest of the photographs in the set. San Francisco native Dave Glass has been shooting cars down on the street since the late 1960s- mostly in the Bay Area, but he's hauled his camera to such places as Mexico and Louisiana as well. This is some amazing stuff, and I think I may have to buy myself a print or two from the Automobile As Landscape series. Send him an email if you're interested in any for yourself. And now, a couple of galleries:

I checked out the snake charming, burlesque performances, accordion music, and cotton-candy booths inside the warehouse, and it was all pretty entertaining… but I was there for the cars. My primary mission: to convince these art car builders to bring their creations to the Goin' For Broken 24 Hours Of LeMons race, since the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir was such a hit at the Gator-O-Rama LeMons. Here's what I found:

The Boiler Bar is having a May Day celebration at their Magnolia Street HQ, starting at 8:00 PM tonight. It's unclear how many art cars will show up, but the Marriage Wrecker and Neverwas LB&O Trolley should be there in addition to the Golden Mean, and there will also be "Snake Charming, CanCan Girls, Belly, Glass, Fire & May Pole Dancing, Burlesques, Balancing Acts, and Old Timey Music." I'll be there, trying to recruit art car builders for the 24 Hours Of LeMons. Give that snail a roll cage and some more horsepower and it could totally compete on the track!
The Boiler Bar

In 1973, there was the Shot Wheels Wacky Packages card, parodying our beloved Hot Wheels toys. Naturally, every kid back then- me included- would have killed for a real Shot Wheels car.

Matchbox fans weren't neglected by Topps, with Mashbox cars appearing soon after Shot Wheels. After nearly two decades of simmering in one artist's cranium, the concept became reality. Here's what this Hot Wheels site has to say:

Started in 1989 by J.P.S, a San Diego artist, who collected Hot Wheels and Matchbox.
The concept being a packaged version of the Wacky Package Sticker.
The first one created was the Lemlin, to match the car pictured on the sticker.

He also made Mashbox, having a similar wacky card with an actual trashed Matchbox car inside of it.

Some of these have been recreated by others over the years.

In 2006, J.P.S. begain re-issuing some of these as well as some new models. All on updated cards.

[HWRedlines]

It is with a particular sense of dread caused by the looming and disused industrial structures that I approach the Tate Modern, housed in the Bankside Power Station on the River Thames. It's from a bygone age when power was generated right in our backyards. And smoke belched from massive chimneys.

Step inside and you can spend an hour a day or a whole week strolling the cavernous spaces and looking at weird shit. Some is crap and some deeply sad and touching. Some exude a great, vibrant, manic energy.

Like any of Jackson Pollock’s canvases. Which are fun to look at, but the real fun is in imagining the killer time Pollock himself must have had as he had days upon days to do nothing but run around and wreak havoc with paint.

You then bump into a rusting Volkswagen Type 2 bus.

It is rusty in a very aesthetic way but is clearly no more and no less than an old German car. Streaming out from the back is a team of sleds, each equipped with a searchlight, a heavy felt blanket and a big block of what appears to be fat and which is, in fact, fat. This is where things get interesting.

The installation was created in 1969 by the German artist Joseph Beuys and is called Das Rudel: The Pack. Beuys based it on a particular day in his Luftwaffe career, when, on a March day in 1944, his Stuka was shot down over the Crimea and he was rescued by Crimean Tartars. He recalled the story decades later:

The last thing I remember was that it was too late to jump, too late for the parachutes to open. That must have been a couple of seconds before hitting the ground. Luckily I was not strapped in—I always preferred free movement to safety belts… My friend was strapped in and he was atomized on impact—there was almost nothing to be found of him afterwards. But I must have shot through the windscreen as it flew back at the same speed as the plane hit the ground and that saved me, though I had bad skull and jaw injuries. Then the tail flipped over and I was completely buried in the snow. That’s how the Tartars found me days later. I remember voices saying “voda” (water), then the felt of their tents, and the dense pungent smell of cheese, fat and milk. They covered my body in fat to help it regenerate warmth, and wrapped it in felt as an insulator to keep warmth in.

Of course you don’t know any of this as you enter the room with the Vee Dub bus and the sleds. All you can sense is a jubilant freedom as you look at all those sleds, clearly well-equipped for a Russian winter—or any winter. They move in a pack, happy, focused, supremely adapted to their environment, and they even have built-it snow brakes, operated by hand levers.

You would trust your life to this focused pack of sleds. You could ride any of them wherever there is enough snow to glide across, whether in the Yukon or in Chukotka. And you can just feel that great, overwhelming freedom, the freedom of an open road, an endless landscape, and a well-adapted vehicle.

Das Rudel will elevate any gloomy day. Come see it if you’re in London.

Photo Credit: ChicagoGeek/Flickr, Lothar Wolleh and the author