Bicycle Art: Chalk Chalk

Los Angeles artist Spencer Starr asks, “Is there really a greater man-made machine more deserving of homage than the bicycle?”

Spencer pays that homage working in light-colored chalk on small hand-made black chalkboards, drawing precise monochrome likenesses of wheeled, human powered transportation devices, including bicycles, tricycles, wagons and more. Chalk Chalk’s Etsy shop offers original pieces (sealed with acrylic fixatif), and open edition prints made from the original pieces.

I asked him to describe a few influences on his work.

I love clean lines in any art form–which is part of my challenge working with chalk, getting clean lines (sometimes I manage to succeed). My friend and framebuilder Tom Schoeniger of 4130, Inc inspires me to no end. Photographer Edward Burtynksky. Charles and Ray Eames. Rich Jacobs. Mike Giant. Basquiat is a big one. Vernon Courtland Johnson. Lance Mountain. My highschool art teachers Don Budy and Charles Thies. Highschool classmates and brothers Billy and Jesse McMillin. And my wife Sharon. And anybody that creates….

Do you ride?

I do ride! I actually came to cycling very late having grown up skateboarding and being slightly “out of step” with the rest of the fam’s cycling. Riding is great save for all the cars and their drivers in LA. I try to run as many errands as I can by bike–which is so much more time efficient in my neighborhood than driving, parking, driving, parking…. One of my most regular errands is to the post office to get all of our Etsy orders shipped–if the post office isn’t busy and I don’t need to wait in line, I can get there and back in about 25 minutes. By car, it would be a minimum of 45!

I relish any chance I get to ride, but I particularly love late night coffee runs, farmer’s market trips, and burrito missions. If I’m riding with the wife, we generally ride La Ballona Creek to the beach and then South to the beach cities (she doesn’t fancy riding in traffic and I hardly blame her)! I sometimes go mountain biking too. I always love it when I go, despite the difficulty in LA of putting the bikes on the car rack and driving to the trailhead. I’ve gotta get over that though as we do have some great trails and mountain passes in Southern California.

I’ll also take my track bike to the Velodrome at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson. Since I have a custom 4130 Track Bike, I felt like it was my responsibility to learn to ride at the Velodrome. Ohmygosh, it’s so fun! Doing sprints from the top corner down is such a rush. I think the corners are almost 45º and you have to maintain a speed of 15MPH or you’ll literally slide down the embankments and crash. Any cyclists in Southern Cali who’ve never been should definitely try to go watch a race there. The space is absolutely gorgeous and is somewhat of an architectural wonder. Admittedly I’m a little biased.

Are there other artists working on bicycle-themed art that you think we should be aware of?

Ohmygosh, there’s so many, but probably my favorite is Mike Giant. Of course, all independent frame builders, but especially Tom from 4130. My cousin Elon. Massan. James Newman. Xvelo Designs. DNTX.

Thanks Spencer! You can buy Spencer’s work through his Etsy shop.

Spencer working in his studio with his ever-present assistant, Squeak.