Harrod Blank. Typing his name, I think of the lyrics of a song by the band Heavy Vegetable that say, "All my heroes are crazy, bored people with nothing better to do with their own lives." It fits my impression of Harrod well, a serendipitous infusion of slacker wisdom into my contemplation of a man who, though human, seems to take on a more mythic status with every passing art car gathering. For what this 32-year old has done in that crazy-bored-nothing-better-to-do-space existent in us all, is astounding. In that dead zone that lingers maliciously between brilliant self-creation and succumbing to shitty jobs like selling ties at K-mart, Harrod Blank has back-flipped out of boredom and into brilliance, lending validation and unity to a lonesome bunch of one-in-a-million artists who, before the film "Wild Wheels," probably thought themselves a few cards short of a full deck. Or, in the case of Ron Dolce, a few marbles short of madness.

That day in Tucson I met Kathleen Pearson and Phillip & Colleen Estrada and their daughter Gypsy, all Bisbee people who I would come to know and love when I moved there later the next year. Kathleen was driving Love 23, her 1983 Ford LTD Station Wagon painted pink and covered inside and out with some 5,000 plastic figurines. An artist, Kathleen's entire world, I would later learn, is as object-encrusted and colorful as her car. And the same goes for artists Phillip, 33, Colleen, 28, and Gypsy, 2. Their 74 Toyota Corolla Doll Car with over 200,000 miles to its name serves as a kind of showplace of one of Phillip's primary art forms, dolls painted and hung on crosses and brooms

It would stand to reason, I guess, that most art car people would be artists. However, I had had my art car for half a decade and never thought of myself as an artist until meeting the likes of Kathleen, Harrod and the Estradas. Witnessing their artistic confidence and the extent of possibilities for 'enhancing' one's car, I determined at once that Duke would no longer suffer long periods of neglect following the ebb and flow of my creative self-esteem, but would from here on out blossom like a bouquet of steel flowers, its push-rod pistils and independent suspension stamen driving it skyward, stunning the interstate world!

For what is a car if not moving art? And further fancified and fanticized, it becomes a freeway fanfaronade for all to see, a priceless, one of a kind, classic work of art! An art car is a Picasso with a drive shaft, a fuel-injected Van Gogh, a motorized Mattise, an internal combustion Gaughin, a Salvador Dali with independent suspension, disk brakes and a T-top roof.

Unless otherwise noted, all images are copyrighted by the artists and/or
by Pineapple Publishing and Consulting
Art Cars in Cyberspace ©2004 Pineapple Publishing and Consulting
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Last update April 1, 2004