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View Full Version : I met the X-18 stylist......



gcarter
03-10-2008, 07:43 PM
This weekend at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance.
Yep, VonKamp, myself, and our wives forked over $200.00 to get in. But boy, was it worth it.
This has got to be one of the three best Concours in the US right after Pebble Beach, and Meadowbrook Hall.
But half way through the afternoon, Elaine and I visited the AFAS (Automotive Fine Art Society) tent and I bought this print;
http://www.autoartgallery.com/afas/juratovic.htm
from the artist. While there, we mentioned we were from the Leesburg area, then he mentioned the "Mt Dora" event, which led Elaine to mention I was restoring a Donzi, which then Jack, the artist, mentioned he had styled the deck of the X-18 for the Chishloms..........
Well, it was a little more complicated than that...seem while just out of school, he did a stint w/Ford styling department, which bored him silly. So he took a hike to Chrysler, where he found things weren't much different. After Chrysler, he landed a job with a promenent industrial design firm (whose name I can't remember) where the owner took the time to really teach him the industry. While there, the Chisholms hired the firm to do some styling work and the account was given to Jack. The Chisholms told him they wanted something a little sportier for a distinct 18 model. He described adding a "ducktail" to the back of the deck. Considering how popular the "X" is, I guess his styling job was pretty successful. This was in the late '60's.

chappy
03-10-2008, 07:49 PM
That is a great story. Had to be a conversation you'll never forget. :cool:

Marlin275
03-10-2008, 09:13 PM
His original drawings or sketches would be most valuable to this group!
I'll give him a call and see if he has any?
Good work George, putting a name on the design!

http://www.donzi.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=30875&d=1186453944


http://www.donzi.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8093&d=1102089325


"I'm a practicing old-car hobbyist," says automotive fine artist Jack Juratovic. "Some artists could care less about old cars on a hands-on basis, and while I'm by no means a certified mechanic, I do like to get under the hood. I consider some of my cars to be rolling sculpture, and I love to drive them as well as simply look at them." From the 1947 Mercury convertible and 1932 Ford V-8 five-window coupe that he wrenched on in high school to the restored 1939 Mercury convertible and 1946 Lincoln Continental that he enjoys driving today, Jack's always-present passion for automotive form and function has fueled his need to create artwork that celebrates the beauty and speed of fine automobiles.

"Like many kids, I drew pictures of cars all through school-I thought I wanted to become an architect. Because my guidance counselor didn't know about the field of industrial design, he steered me towards mechanical engineering, but that didn't last long," he says, with a laugh. Jack switched colleges: "Before you could study industrial design, you had to take two years of fine arts-so you're skilled to go either way in the fine or practical arts." After graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1965, he went to work in the Ford Motor Company's styling studios. He became disenchanted after two years and left, racing an SCCA B-Production Jaguar until his funds ran out. Jack went on to work at Chrysler styling, then with William Schmidt Associates, a highly regarded independent automotive design firm, before founding his own, BORT, Inc. "At William Schmidt, I learned how to run a respected design firm," he recalled. "BORT was a small design shop run by myself and Jack Purcell, a Ford stylist and my old college buddy. We hauled in professional clay modelers as moonlighters on our projects, which included the Mustang II Cobra and the Monza Mirage. Those years of generating and presenting vehicle ideas-of making sketches into 3D forms-this is how I illustrate an idea. And it's only one step further to fine art."

"Twenty years after graduating, I started painting to keep my skills sharp. I'd always admired famed automotive illustrator Peter Helck, and when I struck up a friendship with him in the early 1980s, he gave my paintings the nod," Jack recalls with a smile. "I was involved in the first Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance fine arts show in 1982, and I've pursued art full-time ever since then. I don't pound it out in quantity-I don't think I have that many good ideas," he laughs. "Painting is abstraction, but it has to have a good idea behind it or there's no justification."


http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2005/03/01/hmn_feature6.html

gcarter
03-10-2008, 09:24 PM
His original drawings or sketches would be most valuable to this group!
I'll give him a call and see if he has any?
Good work George, putting a name on the design!
Great idea!
Sorry I didn't think of that.

Kirbyvv
03-11-2008, 07:28 AM
A great chance encounter. It always amazes me where you can meet people with a common bond. A great stylist if I say so.

Lenny
03-11-2008, 07:45 AM
A great stylist if I say so.

Yes, he was. :)