East Village Art Car

A big old Cadillac with Vermont plates with several layers of hand-painting.

Welcoming all admirers with open arms.

The guy on the right was not glued to the car. He was pretty excited by the whole thing, but the way he made sure I saw certain scenes made me wonder if he was the car's owner.

Cowboys, and astronauts, were on the right side of the trunk. Indians were on the left. Lobsters were all over.

Rooftop kangaroo.

This Cadillac was parked on First Ave. near St. Mark's Place this afternoon. You can't imagine how excited I was to see it. Hundreds of plastic animals, including lots of lobsters, and other objects are glued to the car. There was a place setting on the rear bumper.

When I lived in Saginaw I came really close once to buying an early-70s Buick Electra 225 for just this purpose.

Art Car links:

Art Cars in Cyberspace
Art Car Museum
Art Car Fest
Art Cars at the American Visionary Art Museum (It has been a couple of years since my last visit to AVAM. I smell a road trip to Baltimore coming on.)

Oh, the reason I was in the East Village was to buy something at See Hear. Has it moved or gone out of business? I couldn't find it where I thought it was on 7th St.

Comments

[erik kolflat]

05/15/05 “ArtCar is a state of mind!”

Houston based independent filmmaker, artist/musician and ArtCar enthisiast Erik Kolflat has just released the first two DVD volumes of his collections of ArtCar related short documentary films that have been regularly featured at the Houston ArtCar Museum.

Instead of relying on interviews and narration, these two DVD collections of 5 short documentary films each (ranging from 32:22 minutes to 2:45 minutes) are driven by exciting imagery of the amazing ArtCars, ArtCar artists & ArtCar culture that Houston is famous for blended with some of the best music Houston has to offer. The resulting style is creative documentation without boring monologue and negative political spin.

Much of these films feature the unique perspective of Eriks’ “Skate-Cam” technique of filming while rollerskating in various ArtCar parades and an active participants “insiders view” into what it feels like to be in actual ArtCar events.

1. “Two Texas ArtCar First Steps” – an ArtCar twist on the Texas Two-Step.
(68 minutes total)
Houston, Texas hosts one of the world’s largest, oldest and most prestigious annual ArtCar Parades and ArtCar artist communities ~ making Houston an ArtCar Capital of the World!
In a Texas ArtCar first step, The 2003 Houston ArtCar Parade Weekend was held independently under its’ own auspices (finally separate from the Houston International Festival!) to enthusiastic crowds.
In another Texas ArtCar first step, the 2003 “Maiden Voyage” of the first annual Austin ArtCar Parade was held (two weeks prior to the Houston parade) on Main Street in the Texas capitol.

2. “Just Another Day at ArtCar”: 2004 Houston ArtCar Parade.
(52 minutes total)
This follow-up collection takes “Two Texas ArtCar First Steps” a few steps further by highlighting the 2004 Houston ArtCar Parade activities and providing a window into the ArtCar art movement from a brief perspective of 5 ArtCar groups preparing for the parade, a short photo montage of the first French ArtCar Parade (as witnessed by two Houston ArtCar enthusiasts who traveled to the French town of Audincourt) and a look at the events surrounding Houstons’ take on “World ArtCar Day 2004”.

All these films are genuinely fun to watch, designed to be accessible to all who love creative adventure and are driven by the fabulous locally recorded music of Clouseaux, Chris Hirsch & the Lonestar Bluegrass Band, and many other live performances by great Houston & Texas musicians riding on ArtCars in the parades.

Portions of these films have been featured on “Monster Nation”, “Shifting Gears” and “George Foremans’ Houston” (Discovery Channel, History Channel and Travel Channel) and the 32:22 minute “The 2003 Houston ArtCar Parade Weekend” was featured in the 2004 Dallas Video Festival.

These films can be purchased at www.cactusmusicandvideo.com -- and for more information, please email [email protected]