The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum, located in Cleveland, Ohio, showcases Northeast Ohio’s contribution to the transportation industry. It features 170 automobiles, 12 aircraft, and three carriages/sleighs in its permanent collection. However, only 21 non-car exhibits (motorcycles, bicycles, and boats) round out the collection. To help boost the museum’s two-wheeled appeal, 13 life-sized paintings by late Cleveland-based artist Shirley Aley Campbell will join the institution’s motorcycle exhibit throughout 2023.
Titled “Motorcyclists of the Seventies”, the series of five-foot by seven-foot paintings depict riders from 1973 to 1981. Subjects include Motor Maids founding member Dot Robinson, renowned female daredevil Debbie Lawler, and Hells Angels John Knoble and Bob “Laco” Lawrence. Local businessman Joseph Erdelac commissioned Campbell, a Cleveland Institute of Art graduate, to create the paintings in 1973. He did so after admiring her work at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s annual May Show.
