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MOJO CAR Takes 2nd Place Prize in Local Parade!

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nagasiva

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Jun 10, 2002, 8:06:30 PM6/10/02

50020610 VII

sri catyananda:
>> The prize ribbons get glued inside the car, of course,
>> making the car self-decorating.

LadyofPer...@ananzi.co.za (Mother of Car) writes:
> Do you feel like your car is alive?

a personality as real as yours or mine.

> My supervisor at work is starting to have dreams of she
> and her whole family making their car into an art car.

it sounds thoroughly inspired.

> I wonder if her car is calling to her for liberation.

how is art car action (making, sponsoring, driving, etc.)
different than fashion? how is it different than a strange
roadster club accepting wide variety of standards and
compositions? when we went to the Roadster Show in Alameda
County Fairgrounds they had some similar approaches (more
the fiberglass-sculpture look), sporting Pikachu-VW and a
whole bunch of fancy bikes and trikes. the more outlandish
the more it starts to overlap into artcar world. or does
an art car gravitate more toward pop culture than most
roadster car-makers entertain?

n
a B
g l b
a e e
s s a
i s s
v e t
a d !
@yronwode.com ----- http://www.luckymojo.com/mojocar.html

catherine yronwode

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Jun 10, 2002, 10:53:40 PM6/10/02

The cars at the Oakland Roadster Show (held in Alameda, due to venue
problems of late) were custom cars. (The term roadster is just an old
name for a sedan, and the show was originally sonsored by the Oakland
Roadster Club, hence the antiquated name). Anyway, the custom cars at
that show and others are built to certain high professional standards of
metal work, upholstery, and paint finish. The cars are often show-pieces
created by professionals who work in the field of fine car customization
-- or are comprised of indivual efforts by a team of customizers working
on the uholstery, paint, motor, body, hydraulics, etc. for a client who
has designed the overall look of the customization and may have
contributed to a portion of the work. That's why many customs are
exhibited with a stand-up sign next to them, listing the names of the
people who worked on them -- so that people can hook up with the network
of customizers when they need work done.

Art cars, on the other hand, are personbal visions of art, usually
decorated by their owners (although there are a few semi-pro artcar
creators who sell their cars). They are rarely customized in terms of
the motor (in fact, many seem to be dead or dying vehicles) and their
decorative aspects encompass such traditional modern art techniques as
assemblage, collage, painting, sculture, and so forth. Unlike customs,
which celebrate and glorify their own vehicular status, art cars often
have a theme or embody a message independent of or even in contradiction
to their "car-ness" -- the Beach Car and the Colt Van, for example,
convey strong images of laying in the sun and enjoying the sand and
overcoming alcoholism, respectively.

David Crow's Red Stilletto motor-trike in the form of a giant
high-heeled shoe that we saw at the art car show in Sacto was
essentially a custom trike, but with a bizarre theme. Such customs are
sometimes called "freak customs" or "theme cars" in the custom world.
But it is also an art car, and David built it to symbolize his
ex-girldfreind's fetishism of shoes, in contrast to his own fetishism of
custom cars. The Red Stiletto thus perfectly straddles the line between
the art car and custom car.

The Pikachu VW Bug we saw at the Roadster show was a commercial car.
These, like the old Moxie-Mobiles, Oscar Meyer Weinermobiles, and so
forth, fall into their own niche -- being somewhat custom and somewhat
art car. The Lobstermobile (Art the Lobster) that appears in Harrod
Blank's book "Art Cars" is a similar vehicle -- it was created by a
sculptor who was commissioned to design it by the Red Lobster restaurant
chain -- so it was in a sense commercial art or a "commercial art car."

I doubt the Pikachu car would have been at the Roadster show, by the
way, except for one fact -- it was designed and executed by George
Barris, a legendary custom car guy (known as the "King of the
Kustomizers") who, with his brother Sam, pretty much founded custom car
standards as we know them, back in the 1950s at the Barris Brothers
Kustom Shop. (Sam Barris was the first person to ever chop a hardtop)
George Barris is the designer and builder of hundreds of customs, some
of which apear in movies of the eram, such as "High School
Confidential." He was also the designer-creator of the 1960s-era
Batmobile from the Batman TV show. Always very generous with his talent,
Barris also wrote and illustrated many magazine articles on how to build
custom cars, thus giving rise to a serious Barris fandom, out of which
many of today's customizers have grown.

The show we attended was honouring Barris's lifetime of work (he was
there, and the original Batmobile was also on view), so they included
his then most-recent commercial commission, the Pikachu car. It was
great, of course, even though it was a commercial customization -- but
as far as i can tell, virtually every car or bike that Barris has built
has been beautiful, witty, and crafted to the acme of perfection.

For more on George Barris, go to his own site
http://www.barris.com

or consult these fine books:

1. Barris Kustoms of the 1950 s
ISBN: 0879389435 - Paperback - List Price: $21.95
Publisher: MBI Publishing Company - Published Date: 11/01/1994
Author: George Barris
Author: David Fetherston

2. Barris TV & Movie Cars
ISBN: 0760301980 - Paperback - List Price: $21.95
Publisher: MBI Publishing Company - Published Date: 09/01/1996
Author: George Barris
Author: David Fetherston

3. Barris Kustom Techniques of the 50 s
ISBN: 0965200523 - Paperback - List Price: $19.95
Publisher: Thaxton Press - Published Date: 07/01/1997
Author: George Barris
Edited by: Tony Thacker

For more on cars as vehicles of spirituality, try my web page "Who Is My
Lord of Cars?" at
http://www.luckymojo.com/tklordofcars.html

cat yronwode

No personal e-mail, please; just catch me in usenet; i read it daily.

Lucky Mojo Curio Co. http://www.luckymojo.com/catalogue.html
Send e-mail with your street address to cata...@luckymojo.com
and receive our free 32 page catalogue of hoodoo supplies and amulets

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