The Artwork of R.Land

Ronnie Land was one of several impressive visual artists to lend his talents to Man... or Astro-Man?. Land relocated to Atlanta from Jacksonville, Florida in 1994. Almost immediately his quirky, pop-surrealist work caught the attention of the city. He is the man responsible for some of my most cherished Astroman collectibles, and I thought that bunching them into a single post would be a good way to showcase Land’s distinct and incredibly arresting style.

Most Astroman collectors are familiar with Land because he designed the cover art for the split they did with Jonny and the Shamen. The details behind that single appear elsewhere on the blog, but here is another look at the artwork:


There were at least five other Astroman collectibles to feature Land’s artwork. The first was a lunchbox and thermos set that MOAM? sold on one of their later tours. If the numbers kicking around the web are accurate, there were 250 of these made. They sold out of them long before the tour hit my town and I ended up turning to eBay to find one. The box was made of shiny metal with an identical alien-themed design printed on both sides in black ink. The white thermos was printed in black on one side. My thermos has a purple screw on lid, but I've also seen it with a red lid. Here’s a picture of mine:



And here are a few screen grabs of a red-lidded version that also sold on eBay:

This one was signed and numbered on the underside of the box. My own copy is not marked like this one, and I'm not sure how many are out there like this. Looks like some lucky buyer got #220.

Three other items were sold through the astroman.com website in the mid to late 1990s. There were two different designs of light switch plates and a clock. All three were made of wood that was jigsaw cut, screen printed, signed and numbered. Based on the numbers on my switch plates, there were several hundred of these made (mine are #95 and #328). The higher numbered piece is dated 1996 and 1999, which makes me suspect there were two distinct runs. Here is a scan of both R. Land designs:



The clock was a little more labor intensive--it required the addition of the clockwork, a hanging-post and spacers on the back. There was also what appeared to be hand-painted stripes on the hour and minute hands. There were not many of these made. When I contacted Land a few years back to ask for a number he said he wasn’t sure exactly but that he thought he made about 50 of them. He didn’t even keep one for himself. Mine is #30 and is dated 1997. Here is a picture:



The final R.Land piece comes from a picture someone sent me. This looks to be an R.Land MOAM?-themed baseball pennant. I have never seen one in person and have no idea how many were made, but it was too cool to not post. Here you go: