by Candi Strecker
Photographs by Godfrey Daniels
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So you talk to your car, you give it a name and a cute bumper sticker, and now it has a personality? Maybe — the kind of personality that mingles well at a cocktail party. Imagine giving your car a rockstar personality. Imagine if your car made people stare or laugh or drool or complain about visual pollution. Yes, I'm talking about Art Cars, and as long as you're not driving daddy's caddy, you, too, can build your own Art Car.
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"You, too, can build your own Art Car.
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"THE GRAPE"
Godfrey Daniel's "WHIP IT"
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The recent ArtCar WestFest in San Francisco presented extreme examples in the art of car decoration. I was inspired! I wondered if the car encased in wine-bottle corks would float in water, and whether covering a car with thousands of pennies impacts the resale value (for better or worse?). Some people took an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach, lovingly encrusting their
cars with a wild mixture of cartoon figurines, plastic fruit, bones, bits
of scrap hardware, chunks of broken mirror, and baby pacifiers.
Others were more disciplined in their passion, limiting themselves to multiples of one particular object: hundreds of yo-yo halves, or springs that wiggle and wave in the wind. One demented soul wallpapered his car with dozens of album covers from that thrift-store favorite, Herb Alpert's "Whipped Cream And Other Delights," and called it "Whip It." Other cars let it all hang out, with extensions like giant shark fins and wrought-iron balconies. With glue, paint, rivets, and welding, plus a lot of imagination, these folks transformed their cars into sculptures to go. I wanted an Art Car, too!
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Unfortunately, many Art Cars become more art than car. In between shows and
parades, these exuberant showpieces live like Rapunzel, protected from weather and vandalism in a garage. Can a car be art and still function as everyday
transportation? It can — if you choose the right methods and materials. I asked WestFest's Art Car artists their favorite tips and techniques for keeping an Art Car roadworthy.
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