Thursday, March 08, 2007

Dirty Car Windows Become Artist's Canvas

SAN MARCOS, Texas - Every so often, Scott Wade will drive his Mini Cooper up and down the rough, gravelly road near his Texas Hill Country home.

But Wade isn't taking pass after pass on the inhospitable road to test his shocks or for the thrill of the ride.

He needs the dust for art's sake.

Wade, with his scraggly graying hair and a fondness for shirts with wacky prints, doesn't wash his car when it first develops a fine coating of limestone dust. For the past four years he's created art on it instead.

The self-proclaimed "dirty-car artist" uses typical tools such as brushes to "paint" surprisingly detailed works on the rear windshields of his Mini and Mazda.

But this isn't the "Wash me now!" or team mottos that grace dusty jalopies all across America. Wade has painted a good likeness of the Mona Lisa, superimposed over a replica of van Gogh's "The Starry Night." Less highfalutin is his rendition of the black-velvet classic of dogs playing poker.

No comments: