Art Cars

I’m the right age to have seen the old hippie vans with their Flower Power and peace signs, but I never saw a painted car until 1999, here in Gulfport, Florida, and it just wobbled my mind. I had to have one and so I had to learn to paint and so I did.

Driving an art car has transformed my life. I’ve always liked interacting with strangers, and an art car is the perfect vehicle for doing that. In eight years, I’ve only had one negative comment. A pickup truck was rounding a corner, saw my beautiful first art car, and yelled out, “That’s an ugly car!”

I yelled back, “No it’s not!”

Otherwise, the comments have been positive and fun. One seventysomething woman looked up at me in a local store and just beamed. She said she always smiles when she sees my car. People have left notes on my windshield, and flowers, and once, a Ray Charles CD. Even super-cool teenagers have been known to smile or even wave when I drive by.

The attention goes to the car, not the driver, but I’ve noticed a sad development. When I’m at a traffic light, if I look over and see that you’re looking at my car, and you see me seeing you, you’ll turn away. I think you should just smile. Most people seem to be embarrassed to have been caught looking. Goodness! What did they think they should do? Of course it’s for looking at! So now I wait at lights, face forward, as if I had blinders on.

With very, very few exceptions, people seem to think they should only paint old cars. Even people who believe they’ll drive their cars till they fall over (the cars, not the people) think this way. I think it’s just ingrained in our culture that our cars are inviolate. Especially with the advent of vinyl, some people are willing to personalize their cars with that but only because it can be taken off. But paint? I guess that’s too scary, and that’s too bad.

At a show, when someone compliments my car, I grin and say, “Go home and paint your car!” Most people roll their eyes at that horrifying thought, but every now and then, someone will get an aha! sort of look and they move on slowly, thinking, designing ...