complexity

When I was growing up, I had an obsession with military aircraft. To this day, the difference between the F-4E and the F-4D Phantom jets of the Vietnam era seem blindingly obvious to me, when in fact I can’t understand why I know should these things. But I think my current obsession with design had its genesis in endless hours spent poring over encyclopedias of militaria, like the Jane’s Fighting Aircraft series, Airpower magazine, and anything by Bill Gunston. The Cold War-era Soviet planes had a particular charm for me, in their muted palettes of earthtone camo, eggshell blues and mint greens, and then the bold shock of red in that big commie star. A recent relapse into aircraft curiosity led me to the Walkarounds site, which features a catalog of Soviet planes photographed in loving otaku detail. There are some seriously weird camera angles going on here, which leads me to believe that these photos are being taken not for the purpose of capturing the graceful form of the aircraft, but rather for a deeper, more Asperger’s-like level of attention for fanatical model builders. There are shots that seem to demand appreciation for a row of rivets, or an access panel over a hydraulics bleed valve. At any rate, I am thankful for these photographers, because I wound up using these detail shots as “underpaintings” for some recent abstractions. They’re mechanistic but lovely and often simple. A detail of the undercarriage of a ’80s-vintage Soviet light attack bomber supplied the color palette and composition for one of my favorite abstractions so far.

#126

#126 detail