Wesley R. Baker

Header Image: from 'Speedy Twins'
    • Motorcycles and Metaphors: Wes Baker Interprets the Riding Experience on Canvas
    • From Dealernews.com
    • by Mary Slepicka
    • February 18, 2010

    Abstract art uses a "visual language" of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual reality. So says Rudolph Arnheim in Visual Thinking... and so says Wikipedia.

    If you're attending the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show this weekend in Rosemont, a suburb of Chicago ("www.motorcycleshows.com), you're going to confront the definition. And you're probably going to spend some time contemplating it.

    All because of Chicago-area abstract artist, Wesley Baker (www.fineartmotorcycle.com).

    We are talking motorcycle art in a style that takes a hard left turn from the "photorealism" approach of other, more well-known, motorcycle artists like Scott Jacobs and Michael Lichter. In fact, you don't even have to love motorcycles to appreciate the work of Wes Baker. It does help, though.

    We first encountered Baker while attending a local fine-art show last summer at an upscale shopping center in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook. Baker's abstract watercolor prints stopped us in our tracks. He was busy with other customers, so we took a business card, called him up a week later, and made an appointment to visit him in his studio in Elmhurst, Ill.

    This is a man who started out as an abstract artist and then quickly learned that he had to make a living to support his family. So he spent the last 30 years designing heating and air-conditioning systems and working for high-tech companies. When he retired, he went back to the brush. And are we glad he did.

    Baker's works are a clear departure from what is considered traditional motorcycle art. One look at "Starry Starry Bike," Baker's revved-up rendition of the classic Van Gogh painting, will tell you that. You then examine another Baker piece, the haunting "Ghost Riders," (shown above) and it's as if you're watching choppers emerge from a painted fog.

    Visual language? Independence from reality? Indeed.

    This award-winning artist won't be in the abstract but actually live and in person at this weekend's International Motorcycle Show at the Stephens Convention Center. Go to the expo and you'll be able to meet Baker, view his expanding collection of abstract motorcycle art, and even purchase a ticket for a raffle of the "Starry Starry Bike" print on canvas.

    It's a rare opportunity to get to know an artist before he becomes famous. Which should be any day now.