Space Junk Art Car by Rot N Hell

After six years Mr Rot N Hell a Canadian artist transformed this 76 Ford Maverick into the most incredible futuristic art car I have seen in a very long time. Its a masterpiece and it deserves a place here on Art Car Central. He spent two months a year and around $3,000 to attach virtually everything he could scavenge onto the body of his art car. There was no welding involved but instead used screws, caulking, bondo and fibereglass to attach all the junk he found. It started as something he just wanted to do as an answer to boredom and snowballed into the Space Junk Art Car. I saw this car at my first Art Car Fest in 05 and in 07 it was completed. By the way, never ever, ever, ever call his car the batmobile or he will "punch you in the neck":) Thanks for doing an amazing job.

Space Junk Art Car by Rot-N-Hell

Space Junk Art Car by St Vincent Harvestore

Space Junk Art Car by Frank Synopsis

Space Junk Art Car by Rot-N-Hell

Space Junk Art Car by Photo by s7ere0

Space Junk Art Car by Dawn Endico

Space Junk Art Car

Space Junk Art Car

Space Junk Art Car

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Can Art Car- Mustang Made from 5,000 beer cans

Jack Kirby collected 5,000 beer cans and made his very own non mobile mustang can art car. He did it to enter a Budweiser contest for a chance to win a real 1965 Ford Mustang.

Janis Joplin Porsche Art Car - And two tribute vans

by Glyn1

by rachel.citron

Janis Joplin paid about $3500 for this 1965 Porsche 356c Cabriolet when she bought it from a Beverly Hills auto dealer in September 1968. Prior to the sale, the dealer had painted the car oyster white. Joplin, however, wanted something more dramatic, and Dave Richards, a friend and Big Brother roadie, created this psychedelic design, which includes an image of Janis and Big Brother on the front left fender.

The car quickly became identified with Joplin, who drove it around San Francisco, where she lived, and down to Los Angeles, where she recorded. Whenever she parked it somewhere, fans would leave notes under the wipers. Once, while Joplin was at a gig, the car was stolen. The thief spray painted it gray, but when it was retuned, Joplin found an auto shop that was able to recover the psychedelic finish.

A few months after Joplin’s death in 1970, her family gave the car to Albert Grossman, Janis’ manager. He kept it in Bearsville, New York, where it was used by visiting artists, friends and clients. In 1973, he returned the car to the Joplins, who used it as a family car.

The car has been restored several times over the years. Most of the engine and body parts are original. The seats have been re-covered, and the cloth on the convertible top is new. The body was repainted as close as possible to the original design by the Denver Center Theatre Company paint shop in 1994.

entire article via rockhall

Janis Joplin Art Van Tribute





photos by Tonsils

Janis Joplin VW Art Car Tribute



photos by eduardo kobra
artist studio kobra

MARTHA SAWYERS (1902-1988)

If you graduated from high school in Cuero, Texas during the 1920s you could look forward to a long career working at one of the local turkey farms. Martha Sawyers sized up the situation and decided instead to run for her life.

She packed a bag and made her way to New York City where she took classes at the Art Students League and supported herself doing theatrical illustrations. But Sawyers wasn't done running.

Late at night in her small apartment she read stories about the exotic islands of the south Pacific and resolved to see them with her own eyes. She saved enough money to book passage on a slow Dutch freighter headed for the south seas. The ship steamed around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean, and with each new port Sawyers became more entranced by the sounds and colors and cultures. When the freighter arrived at the island of Bali, she decided to stay. She quit the ship and rented a small place on the beach looking out across the Straits of Bali.

The first nights alone were terribly creepy. The surf booms in like great thunder claps but in between each roar of the waves I could imagine I heard all sorts of things. One night a monkey broke in and swung on the support of my mosquito bar over the bed, gibbering at me all night long.

Looking back, Sawyers laughed that she had no idea what she was getting into. "I guess I was a ninny, to tell the truth." She got sunstroke. She had to dose herself with quinine to avoid malaria. But her experiences in the south seas set fire to her art. Sawyers said that living among the natives

taught me the value of honesty in my type of work. When you stand and sweat-- yes, sweat-- for a whole morning trying to get the right reproduction of a girl's golden skin and amber eyes it's good for you.

Sawyers later described her fateful decision as "the turning point in my artistic career. The nights when I trudged out into the coconut palm groves to see the natives dance were worth it alone."



The pictures she created in the south sea islands were highly successful back in the United States. She exhibited a series of 30 portraits of Balinese artists in a NY gallery where they were seen by the art director for Colliers. She soon became a regular illustrator of Asian subjects for Colliers, as well as for Liberty and McCall's.





Sawyers had some close calls after World War II broke out in the Pacific. She endured the Japanese invasion of Peiping. Outraged by the impact of war on the people and cultures she loved, she created posters for Chinese war relief and became a war correspondent for Colliers.





After the war, she continued traveling around the world, and worked in Penang, Singapore, Sumatra,Tokyo, Istanbul, Java, Hong Kong, Shanghai, China, Indonesia, India, Nepal and Mexico.



Sawyers married illustrator Bill Reusswig and for a while even thought about retiring, but said "before six months were up I was so bored I could have wept." Taking her husband in tow, Sawyers went off on another adventure illustrating books about the far east. She wrote of one of their trips:

From the plains of India at Patna we flew in a war-weary C-47 northward over some of the highest mountains in the world, then dropped into the valley of Katmandu, which is only 4,500 feet above sea level. Timing and luck gave us spring in our Shangri-la.

Sawyers' long and exciting artistic career ended quietly in a little home in the Connecticut countryside.

I am amazed that virtually nothing has been written about the life of Martha Sawyers. I only learned the stories I am sharing here by sitting at the feet of Walt Reed at Illustration House. Each year the echo of her bold adventure grows fainter.

Baby pandas

a research on cuteness :P

having various connection and comp problems lately, wish i have more to post.

Hoop the King of Art - And All His Other Art Cars

I have wanted to write about this amazing character named Steven Hooper, or Hoop (the self proclaimed King of Art) for a while now so here he is. He started doing art cars in the East Village about 20 years ago when he was doing performances and parties at clubs all around the area. His motivation for doing all this is to bring art to the average person on the street. His work has been shown at over 40 museums and gallery shows (Chelsea Art Museum, MOMA, Fusion Arts etc.) television and the news media. He currently lives in Clifton, New Jersey where he takes care of his mother, but still takes the time to go back to SOHO to let people ogle at his street art. Below are a list of most of his art cars and a video. Nice work HOOP!!!!!!!!!

Royal Hoopmobile Art Car


Hi-Tek Hoop Van


Hoop's Hearse Art Car


Hoopomobiles Misc. Art Car

Car Photos above By Harrod Blank, Art Car Agency

Hoop's Head Car


Hoop Time Machine Art Car


Hoop Match Box Art Car


Hi-Teck Hoop Art Car



Hoop's Good Luck Truck


Hoop Convertible Art Car

Fiat 850, the Italian Isetta, covered in cans
Photos above via HOOP

Hoop Communication Art Car


Hoop Art Car Video

Chevette Art Car by David Stephens - Lucky

"Lucky" is an 1981 Chevette Art Car created by folk artists David Stephens from Nova Scotia. This art car is for SALE, has no rust, excellent condition, certified 88,938 original km. It is painted with oil and various found objects glued to the body and three very nice fins, for only $7,500.