Cars - Art car

	Cars - Art car

An art car is a vehicle that has its appearance modified as an act of personal artistic expression. Art car owners often dress in a matching motif (much like their previous generation hippie counterparts) when displaying their cars.

Overview

Art cars are public and mobile expressions of the artistic need to create. In creating an art car, the :"exteriors and interiors of factory-made automobiles are transformed into expressions of individual ideas, values, beliefs and dreams. the cars range from imaginatively painted vehicles to extravagant fantasies whose original bodies are concealed beneath newly sculptured shells" :(from Petersen Automotive Museum's Spring 2003 Los Angeles, California exhibit Wild Wheels: Art for the Road Gallery Guide)

The origins of the art car has been debated. Some would consider the lowrider as the first art cars since airbrushed graphics are painted on the decklid and hood panels. During the late 1960s, singer Janis Joplin had a psychedelic-painted Porsche 356 and John Lennon, a paisly Rolls Royce. Also, part of counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s were DayGlo painted VW Buses and customized vehicles (e.g. a customized 1977 Cadillac Fleetwood seen in the film Escape From New York).

Some art cars

The Worthington Bottle Car

One of the earliest examples are the built in the 1920s to advertise Worthington Beer in England. The five cars were fitted out with boiler plate bodies to resemble the shape of a bottle laid on its side - each one weighed about 2.3 tons.

The Nevada Car

Built on an International Harvester pickup truck as a community project during Reno, Nevada's Reno Days event. Features a "supercharger" on the hood which is actually the motor head unit from a Kirby Sani-Tronic vacuum cleaner. Owned and (formerly) driven by Patrick Dailey of Novato, California, who states: " Wherever we go people are always trying to give us more junk to put on it." and "...we hardly ever have to buy our own gas." As of summer 2005 the Nevada Car is stored in Boulder City, Nevada, in need of engine repairs.

Buddha Buggy

A 1987 Honda CRX, the Buddha Buggy features a 1.3 m high detachable Nepalese Buddhist stupa on the roof. In back, a 300 mm high Ho-T'ai in the aspect of Utter Benevolence is flanked by other Buddhist satuettes. These are only part of the 50 golden statuettes, mostly with Buddhist or Asian spiritual themes that adorn the car and stupa. Adding to the effect are prayer flags, numerous political, school, and advertising stickers and the vanity license plates, TOOCOOL. Not visible in the image is a 330 mm high procelain Amitabha Buddha in its niche in the stupa, and paintings of the Buddha, comic dragons, a cartoon portrait of the owner, comets, a flying saucer with aliens, and two-legged fishes. The Buddha Buggy is the work of its Seattle, Washington owner, Larry S. Neilson, and his collaborators.

Camera Van

A van entirely covered with photographic and videocameras and featuring a video display, built by filmmaker and art car guru Harrod Blank. This vehicle has the distinction of being one of the few works of art that actually looks back at the viewer, as it photographs and videotapes them using some of the cameras mounted upon it, and has the ability to play the video back on the external screen, allowing you to watch it - watching you as you are watching it watch you. (Seen in Oakland, California.) More at

Flying Saucer

This is an otherwise conventional VW Beetle but with aluminum arching skirts all around that make the platform completely circular. In place of the sun roof is somewhat hemispherical transparent plastic dome. (Seen in a Berkeley, California parade.)

Oh my God!

A 1965 Volkswagen Beetle with the California license plate OMYGAWD, which features exotic plastic fruits and vegetables, a world globe and the phrase "Oh my God" painted in dozens of languages. A creation of Harrod Blank, this Beetle was featured in the 1992 documentary Wild Wheels (the documentary featured a scene in a courtroom where Blank was seen contesting a parking citation to the point that art cars and their respective artists were usually subjected to police harassment).

Phone Car

Created by business owner, Howard Davis (seen here as his alter-ego, Teleman), as a way to promote his business telephone company. It was featured in various magazines including Motor Trend and Weekly World News, and was also in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles for its exhibit on art cars.

The Phone Car is built on a 1975 Volkswagen Beetle frame and has a tinted glass windshield which allows the driver to see clearly out of it. It also has a telephone ringer as its horn, so instead of a honk, it rings!

Rocket Car

A car that looks like a Buck Rogers style art deco rocket ship, complete with a gauge-filled cockpit interior which appears to be suitable for a jet aircraft.

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