Product Description

Art Cars represent a vital and ever-growing folk art form. Forty-two of these magnificent sculptures-on-wheels are featured in 127 photographs, complete with an essay about each artist. Ever wonder what could possess a driver to transform his or her car into an alligator, cover it with faucets, meticulously apply stained glass to every inch, or completely coat it with buttons? Satisfy your curiosity, and maybe even discover an inspiration to spice up your own driving experience in this lively book by Art Car documentarian Harrod Blank.

As a teenager, Blank didn’t want to be mistaken for a person as bland as his 1965 VW bug, so he started painting on it, attaching things to it, and attracting a heap of attention in a town where he became known for the car with the unforgettable name, “Oh My God!” Over time, people passing through town let him know that there were others like him around the country who had discovered the same irresistible canvas for self-expression. As a young filmmaker, Blank knew he had to go out there and document these kindred spirits.

Before long, he embarked upon a journey around the country to interview and photograph Art Car artists in the making of his feature documentary (also available from Amazon.com) and companion book, both entitled “Wild Wheels.” He found them in the most unexpected corners of the U.S., these folk artists who had no concern for traditional art venues, who wanted their art, their message, their self-expressive shrines out there on the streets.

In “Wild Wheels” we get a vivid glimpse of a range of these artists whose motivations, methods, and works of art are surprisingly varied, who may have only one thing in common: they’re all in this book!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1115667 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 95 pages

From Library Journal
"Art cars" are vehicles transformed by their creative owners into elaborately decorated statements of individual mobility. Blank, an independent filmmaker and art car aficionado, spent two years traveling the highways and byways of America in search of people who shared his unusual passion for artistically personalized transportation. The result was an independent documentary film (also entitled Wild Wheels ) and this book: a zany testament to the far reaches of the creative spirit enlivened by more than 100 color photographs and descriptions of 42 attention-grabbing autos with humorous names like the Beaded Bug, the Hippomobile, and the Grass Car. The book also contains brief stories about the artists who created them, providing insight into the ideas and emotions that sparked this novel pop art form. Recommended for YA and general collections.
- Eric C. Shoaf, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence, R. I.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap
In the late 1980s filmmaker Harrod Blank crisscrossed the country in his elaborately adorned car, “Oh My God!,” looking for other “art cars” to costar in his film “Wild Wheels.” And find them he did, eventually filming over forty cars and interviews with the artists who created them. Decorated in a wide variety of styles and on themes ranging from religion to barnyard animals to general zaniness, these art cars are attention-getting testaments to their owners’ artistic self-expression. This book features forty-two of these amazing apparitions. Among the mobile masterpieces pictured are the “Lightmobile,” a Volkswagen Beetle strung with 1,400 computer-programmed lights that can be made to flash messages; the “Grass Car,” which is planted from top to bottom and side to side with living, growing grass; “Cowasaki,” a motorcycle that has been transformed to look like a cow; the “Toy Car Limo,” driven by Darrell “The Clown” for the sole purpose of making children smile; the “Mad Cad,” a 1960 Cadillac Sedan de Ville festooned with thousands of beads and rhinestones and sporting a flock of jewel-encrusted birds; and the ever-popular “Hippomobile,” a mustang convertible covered with a brass-plated hippopotamus. A fascinating and lively book, “Wild Wheels” includes over 100 color photographs and a brief essay about each artist and his or her creation.

About the Author
When Harrod Blank first realized that his '65 VW Beetle could be treated as a canvas, the result was "Oh My God!" Painted like a beach ball with a bumper of plastic fruit, a chalkboard on back and a TV on the roof, the car was the catalyst for his remarkable career.

Initially, Blank thought he was the only one in the world with an art car, and at times felt quite alienated. This would change, as gradually he learned from supporters that there were other such cars, spread out across the country. Drawing from what he had learned from his father, famous filmmaker Les Blank, and the BA in Theater Arts/Film he earned at UC Santa Cruz in 1986, Blank began photographing other art cars. Subsequently, he raised money through private investors and took out loans as needed to finance the documentary film he dreamed of making: “Wild Wheels.”

To his credit, over 55 million people have now seen the film worldwide. As a start, Blank distributed “Wild Wheels,” featuring 46 art cars and their respective artists by driving "Oh My God!" with the film to 50 different cities across the country. Publicity from the tour gained the interest of PBS, which broadcast the film as a National Special in March 1993. The same year, Blank's photography was featured in a companion book, “Wild Wheels” (Pomegranate Artbooks) which was named "Best Book For Young Adults" by the American Library Association. “Wild Wheels” has been reprinted by Blank Books, with a brilliant new front and back cover design and 17 new pictures, now available in paperback.

Combining his passion for car art and his love for photography, Blank attached 1,705 cameras to a 1972 Dodge van. With ten working cameras included in this rolling spectacle, his second art car, the "Camera Van" has given Blank the ability to photograph the public's candid reactions to car art. In 1995 Blank drove the van to New York City for its official "debut" and took over 5,000 pictures along the way. He is now working on a book of these reaction shots, to be entitled “I've Got A Vision.”

Blank, convinced as ever of the beauty and power of art cars, created “Driving The Dream,” a 30-minute documentary which premiered on TBS's National Geographic Explorer, October, 1997. In response to the seemingly infinite number of astounding art cars yet to be unveiled, Blank is expanding “Driving the Dream” into a feature length sequel to “Wild Wheels.” Art car fans should be on the lookout for “Wild Wheels 2” in late 2002. The Petersen Automotive Museum will host a major exhibition of art cars in 2002-3, of which Harrod Blank will be Guest Curator.

Customer Reviews

Tired of being a commuter car clone? This book's for you!
Talk about the power of books! Six years ago, some roadside preacher in a bus covered windshield-to-tail lights in bible verses handed me a book called Wild Wheels. He thought I would enjoy it, seeing as how I was driving a Ford Granada covered in graffiti, and therefore somewhat of a kindred spirit. Well, he was right. Years later, I'm still driving that Granada and mostly thanks to writer/photographer Harrod Blank's campaign to make the American highway a safer place for art. In the stories and bright colorful photos of Wild Wheels, I found the inspiration to turn my graffitied junker into a driving dream, a 2-door art museum on wheels. And though Wild Wheels won't likely have so dramatic an effect on every reader, its universal theme of self-realization through expression will touch every reader's heart.

Featuring over 100 color photos and fascinating anecdotal peeks into the lives of the artists who made the cars, Wild Wheels continues to introduce the world to the pioneers of the now popular car art movement.

The characters and cars in Wild Wheels are so genuine and so funky and so genuinely funky as captured by Blank that they'll have you wondering "Is it real? Did somebody make all this up? Am I really bolting antlers to my hood?" For answers to these and other wild questions, buy this book!! I loved it, and everyone I show it to wants a copy.

Extremely Entertaining - To Be Seen To Be Believed!
This is my favorite "coffee table book" of all time. Yeah, it's a smaller than the normal "coffee book," but that's what it is: a book you can pick up, flip to any page, and enjoy a few minutes of reading and visual pleasure....every time!

It's simply a book showing what bizarre people across the country have done with their cars: growing grass on them, pasting thousands of artificacts on them; installing a swimming pool in the bed of a truck; having an old VW covered in lights, on and on. The artwork on some of these automobiles is just incredbile.

I have the first edition book, printed in 1994, and it has quality hard-glossed paper so the photographs come through perfectly and you get a good look at each strange vehicle and owner. In addition, author Harrod Blank's description of the people, their cars and why they did what they did are all fascinating and mostly very funny. Blank is quite a character, himself. These weird cars reflect their owners and.....well, see for yourself!

"Wild Wheels" is a wild book that has been entertaining me for 15 years.

The original art car book
Here is Harrod Blank's first art car, and his camera van, with early Burning Man art cars (pre-"mutant vehicle"). This book ties in with the movie "Wild Wheels" and is essential for tracing the 1980s origin of contemporary art cars.