"Frill’er Up-

Driving is an art when the car is a canvas"

Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

"So you’re driving along in traffic and suddenly a car covered in multicolored swirls of gravel pulls up next to you. Or it may be the truck with plastic cowboys glued all over it, or a Lego-encrusted convertible.

You’ve had a close encounter with an art car.

This longtime, nontraditional art form has increased in popularity in the past 15 years, establishing a stronghold in Texas, according to art car owners and organizers of the Annual Art Car Parade in Houston. In Dallas, the cars don’t sit still; the dozen or so art car owners say they are proud to use their cars in everyday traffic.

‘"It’s great to have an art car in Texas,"’ says Andy Don Emmons of Waxahachie, ‘"because it’s so subversive. People here are known to have a high regard of their cars."’

He says some people think he’s some kind of a nut when they see "Green Lightnin," his 1969 Ford truck covered in tiny plastic cowboys, Indians, aliens, gold armadillos and several shades of green paint. But he likes the attention. ‘"It is an effective art piece,"’ says Mr.Emmons, an artist by trade, whose truck is the third art car he’s created.

‘"It is the best way to get your art shown, because so many people see it - it’s always on exhibit."’

In fact, people line the streets of Houston each April for the Annual Art Car Parade, which features 200 entrants from 20 states and Canada. Parade organizers say there are about 160 known owners in Texas. Locally, art car artists were recently honored at a reception at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, and on Saturday, they’ll provide transportation for a MAC-sponsored tour of Dallas-area yard art.

‘"Art cars are reviving the sense of individuality which is in decline in our society," writes James Harithas in the 1997 book Art Cars: Revolutionary Movement

(Ineri Publishing, $27).

He defines an art car as ‘" a motor-driven vehicle which a car artist alters in such a way as to suit his own aesthetic."’ This includes decorated motorcycles, advertising vehicles such as the Oscar Mayer Wiener-mobile and even riding lawn mowers; interiors of cars as well as exteriors; and a variety of horn sounds. ‘"The low-rider and the hippie van provide the art car with its most inspiring precedents."’

The creative impulse behind an art car takes on many forms. Some artists embellish their cars in memory of a loved one, or to keep themselves occupied. Some describe dreaming about their designs, while others sat they just happened.

‘"It began with one figurine, a horse on the top of the hood,"’ says Mr.Emmons. ‘"That’s all I’d planned to put on it, and then it just sort of grew."’

Denton resident Bill Warde, however, had a design even before the car. He was inspired by the blue, white, black, yellow and orange-red mural that the late artist Alexander Calder created for the body of a Braniff jet in the mid-‘70s. A year age, after acquiring a 20-foot-long ’77 Impala, he created "Braniffty."

‘"The color placement was planned, to get a good flow,"’ says Mr.Warde, an English professor at the University of North Texas. "For example, I only used blue and white on the roof, for a skylike effect. I took all the chrome and insignias off the car, so nothing would interrupt the flow of colors."

Mike Dellinger also put a lot of thought and planning into transforming his 1981 Honda Civic into "The Texas Tornado." He and his wife, Debbie, spent more than 200 hours painting the car in pastels and gluing on masses of items, including fish-tank gravel, filmstrip canisters, old tools, linoleum flooring on the hood and top and 616 pennies. Mr.Dellinger, an art teacher at Franklin Middle School in Dallas, says he wanted to use ‘"a lot of the elements of design that I work with, like repetition."’ For example, several circles can be found, including a hubcap clock, a Cadillac emblem and a dryer vent.

Sometimes art car owners aren’t necessarily the cars’ artists. When Judy Niven decided she wanted to do something with her late grandmother’s yellow 1974 Lincoln, she asked Texas artist Frank X. Tolbert Jr. to paint the sides, now graced with colorful images including a witch, a blue heron, a bear, red flames and a big eye.

When Carol Brewer created the art segment of the Body and Soul homeless ministry at St. Paul United Methodist Church, she decided her 1979 Dodge van would be the perfect canvas for her new group of artists. The now green and purple van features dominoes glued around the top, a painted clown on back, a lizard and a lion head on the sides, wood carvings on the hood, and plastic bath toys glued on the front bumper. She uses it on Saturdays to pick up participants in the art program.

‘"It’s always changing," says Ms.Brewer. ‘"That’s what makes it exciting."’ Even though she still drives the van and parks it at her home, she doesn’t see herself as the owner. ‘"I think they really like the fact that it has been a group project. It gives a sense to belonging to everyone."’

Another aspect of car art can be the driver’s attire, which may match or enhance the car’s designs. In the case of Dallasite____, that design is a cow. Her 1992 Chrysler LeBaron convertible features bovine scenes on the hood and trunk, made from more than 16 buckets of Legos. Ms.____ wears cow-patterned skirts, bustiers, boots, pants, sunglasses, and even headpieces.

‘"I make all the clothes; I have five (typo 9) different outfits,"’ says Ms.____, who has named herself "The Cow Goddess."’

‘"I am (one) with my car. We represent each other." She says she dresses up as often as possible except at her new job as supervisor in the _______ department at NationsBank. ‘"I just don’t think it would be appropriate."

Dallas art car owners have many stories about the strong reactions that they elicit from the public. Though most say they have gotten curious reactions from police officers, they have not been ticketed.

‘"It’s a joyful thing,"’ says Mr.Warde. "Ninety percent of the people like it, or dislike you just because you’re different. The other five percent don’t have a reaction, and that worries me the most."’

Because the owners use their cars in daily life, they get reactions everywhere they go, sometimes so much so that it delays simple errands such as getting gas or running to the supermarket.

Mr.Dellinger remedied that situation by stocking the trunk with information sheets about the car, which he gladly hands out to the curious.

That is, if they can read. ‘"Little kids are especially overwhelmed by the car,’’ he says. ‘"They relate to it as a toy. They want to touch it and feel it…the textures are so inviting to them. Most of it can’t be hurt-I encourage them to look and touch, to really experience it from all angles."’

Captures by photo

Photography by Michael Mulvey

"(The) Cow Goddess", Betsy II, 1992 Chrysler LeBaron

"*Most memorable reaction: Last Halloween night, a kid who was walking with her mom pointed to the car. I had the car horn "moo" and the girl tripped and fell on her face!

*Favorite item on interior: A plastic "Goliath the Gargoyle," from Disney’s Gargoyles cartoon, dressed in a minotaur suit.

*Favorite item on the exterior: It was the bull head (pictured). I hope whoever stole it sees this and feels guilty and returns it.

*What would you add? More Legos, and fake cowhide on the dash and the inside of the convertible top.

*If you could create another art car, what would it look like? I’d have a car with targets painted all over it, since I’ve been hit six times in the last year.