Interview: Karlee Sangster.
Our Art of Drive series interviews artists, designers and photographers to find out what inspires them.
Tell us a bit about what you do and your background.
I’m an illustrator, most of the work I do is for magazines and newspapers. I don't always get to work on motorcycle projects so it’s nice when I get the chance. My background is in graphic design, but I eventually decided I wanted to have a career in illustration because I found more room to be creative.
Our Art of Drive series interviews artists, designers and photographers to find out what inspires them.
Please give our readers an introduction to who you are, where you are from, and what you do?
My name is Alan Derosier, I’m 27 years old and from a small town in the Britain countryside of France. I'm a car designer currently working in Shanghai, China, living with a strong passion for vintage aircooled VWs and Porsches.
When did you start drawing and how did your life as an artist begin?
I started drawing at a very young age, as was common I think for most people growing up. I liked taking things from my favourite shows at the time and recreating them or adding things to them to make them a little different. I remember a couple friends and I had this whole thing where we would take characters like Spongebob and make them wear mech battle suits or add ridiculous guns on them. That's the fun thing about drawing.. you can make something that you're sure no one (or at least no one in your group of friends) has seen before.
How would you describe your art?
I suppose the easiest way to describe my art is that it's kind of illustrative in a cartoony way. I like to tell a story with my paintings, like an old three panel comic strip only the first and third panel are missing and it's up to the viewer to make up their own beginning and end. My style fits nicely into the low brow, kustom kulture, tiki, surf & punk genres.. Go figure.
I first met Jack Telnack in 1984 on a private student tour of the Ford Design Centre in Dearborn, Michigan. At that time he was Director of Ford North American Design. In 1986 he was part of the management team that hired me as a designer. One year later he became the Vice President of Ford Design worldwide.
The Australian Grand Prix was first run in the late 1920s at Phillip Island. For eight years the races continued on the rectangular dirt road circuit. This unpredictable and unstable surface called for creative mechanics and thus, the ‘Australian Special’ was born.