The hot rod enthusiasts and classic car connoisseurs alike are mourning a significant loss in the car show industry with Austin ties this month. David&hellip;{"id":1705,"date":"2012-05-17T22:20:46","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T05:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.pomonaswapmeet.com\/?p=1705"},"modified":"2012-05-17T22:20:46","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T05:20:46","slug":"renown-automotive-artist-dave-bell-passes-at-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/17\/renown-automotive-artist-dave-bell-passes-at-72\/","title":{"rendered":"Renown Automotive Artist, Dave Bell, passes at 72"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The hot rod enthusiasts and classic car connoisseurs alike are mourning a significant loss in the car show industry with Austin ties this month.<a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austindailyherald.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Dave-Bell.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"border: 1px solid black;\" title=\"Dave Bell\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austindailyherald.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Dave-Bell-232x300.jpg?resize=179%2C231\" alt=\"\" width=\"179\" height=\"231\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>David J. \u201cDave\u201d Bell, originally of Austin, died May 5 in Falcon Heights, Minn. at 72. Bell, a pioneer in the field of automotive art, was widely known for his distinctive drawing style.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was really famous for his fervent drawings of hot rods,\u201d said Fran Bishop. Bishop had crossed paths with Bell when Bishop moved to Austin from California in 1967.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe belonged to the same car club that I was in,\u201d Bishop said. The group was called Thumpers Car Club, and was still active all the way up until a few years ago. Now, most of its members have passed away, Bishop said.<\/p>\n<p>Some of Bell\u2019s most recognized art was for a car show called the Pomona Swap Meet held in Pomona, Calif.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDave did a lot of work for our event,\u201d said Kim Cross, vice president of George Cross &amp; Sons Inc., which puts on the event. \u201cWe are known throughout the world because of his art.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bell submitted his first art for George Cross &amp; Sons in the late 70s, then drew for the company through the 80s and 90s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were changing our artwork once a year for our event,\u201d said George Cross, president of George Cross &amp; Sons. \u201cEvery year it would get more and more detailed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company switched to a different artist around the turn of the millennium, but quickly heard feedback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey wanted Bell back,\u201d Kim said. The company brought Bell back on. It still uses a logo Bell drew in the early 80s.<\/p>\n<p>Bell did artwork for the company for about 30 years total. He was still in demand, and in fact busy as ever, when he grew ill and passed away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are so heartbroken,\u201d Kim said, adding that he was a huge loss to the industry as a whole. \u201cI wish I had the pleasure of meeting him firsthand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bell\u2019s art had a distinctive style made up of densely-packed cartoons filled with classic cars, hot rods, characters and block lettering.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just constantly fluid,\u201d Kim said. \u201cLike his pen never left the page.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>People would scrutinize his artwork for signs of themselves or people they knew. Kim said his drawings sometimes were \u201clike a Where\u2019s Waldo?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bell lived in St. Paul while he was doing the artwork, and never actually visited one of the Pomona Swap Meets in California. The company sent him pictures of cars, road signs and Pomona land marks to draw. His familiarity with hot rods and the concept pictures he was given were enough for him to go off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe just got it,\u201d Kim said. \u201cHe understood the industry and cars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>George agreed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe drew the car like it was supposed to be drawn,\u201d he said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t put a Ford fender on a Chevy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>George had a long-standing over-the-phone relationship with Bell. He said their conversations would span any number of topics, but rarely could George call him about business and get off the phone in less than an hour.<\/p>\n<p>Bell was preceded in death by his parents Jack and Louetta Bell. He is survived by a number of family members, including his wife Lynn. A funeral service was held on Friday, May 11 at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Roseville.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The above was an excerpt from the Austin Daily Herald, by Kevin Coss<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cos_headline_score":0,"cos_seo_score":0,"cos_headline_text":"","cos_headline_has_been_analyzed":false,"cos_last_analyzed_headline":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9nnZN-rv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1709,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions\/1709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}