Artist Takes "Wash Me" On Dirty Car Windows To Beautiful New Level

"Hydra And the Nymphs" in dirty
car art, by Scott Wade.  

It's winter.

Which means your car will get covered with road salt and grime and grit and look really ugly. Plus it'll be hard to see out of your dirt smeared window.

On top of that, some obnoxious kid will scrawl "Wash Me" on the dust and dirt covering your rear window.

If only Scott Wade could come to the rescue.

Who?

Scott Wade, an artist who uses dirty cars as a canvas to create some beautiful works. Seriously!

It's called Dirty Car Art, and it's a hit.

According to his Web site, Wade, when he was younger was inspired to go beyond the "wash me" cliche on dirty car windows. He lived on a dirt road, so ar windows were usually dusty in hot, dry Texas.  

Portrait of Carl Sandberg in dirty car
art by Scott Wade.  

He experimented with using his fingernails, pads of his fingers, then Popsickle sticks, and brushes to develop the art on dirty car windows.

Of course, the artwork disappears in the next rainstorm, so he photographs his work, waits for the dirt to reappear on the windshields after a rainstorm and starts another painting.

He says:

"The impermanence of this art form is one of the things I really love about it. For one thing, it helps me to not take it too seriously and to really have fun with it. But most important, it reminds me that all of life is transit, that we won't be here all that long, and to reall enjoy the wonder and beauty while  we're here."

Without rain, the dirty car art can last several days, as he says the turbulence of driving along in the wind doesn't seem to affect the drawings too much.

Wade, who is about 54 years old says he has been doing dirty car artwork for pretty much as long as he can remember, but got serious about it about 12 years ago.

And of course we MUST have the dogs
playing cars in dirty car art, too.  

He makes his living as a graphic artist, but he's gotten enough attention that he derives income from his dirty car art through appearances at fairs, carnivals, events, that type of thing.

PR firms, event organizers and ad agencies also hire Wade.

You can scroll through Wade's fantastic image gallery to see what he's done at various events and for various clients.

I'm not the first person to notice Wade. He's been seen in outfits like Maxim magazine and CBS Morning News. He's hoping his growing popularity will turn his car art into a full time gig.

It can take anywhere from a few minutes to six hours to create the art, Wade said.

At events, there's not always dirty cars handy, so he puts a thin sheen of an oil - cooking oil is good -  on a windshield, gets out a blow dryer and blows dust or fine dirt onto a car window. The oil makes the dirt stick, and away he goes.

He says you and I could do the same thing if we're inspired to create car art. Just smear on the cooking oil. If dust isn't available, try whole wheat flour.

And maybe you, too, can make the winter tableau of ugly dirty cars that much more beautiful

Wild Art: Put Paint On Stereo Speakers, Blast Music, Beauty Happens

From Indulgd.com, a really cool arts and design web site, I found this neat post about photographer Martin Klimas, yet another artist who found a novel way to create some amazing works.

He put liquid paint on stereo speakers. He would then abruptly blast the music, which sent the paint erupting upward, and he took pictures.

A couple examples are in this post. They are awesome. Check out the link to Indulgd for more.  

Also, there's obviously much more at Klimas' web site, which is definitely worth a look.

Ten Story Refrigerator Defrosted, But Awesome Pics

It's a pain to defrost a freezer. Especially those older ones where so much ice builds up there's no room to  stuff your Tater Tots and Eggo waffles into the freezer.

And when you defrost, water gets all over everything.

Inside the ten story ice building in Chicago, before it was
defrosted. Image from GaryRobert Photography

So imagine defrosting a ten story refrigerator that pretty much hasn't been defrosted since the 1920s.

That's what some people in Chicago's meatpacking district contended with at the Fulton Market Cold Storage Co.

The cold storage company decided to move operations to a modern refrigerator building, and developer Sterling Bay came in to totally redo the refrigerator building into modern offices for potential client SRAM, a bike component manufacturer.

Before they could begin work, the place had to be defrosted.

Luckily, GaryRobert Photography  was invited in to take pictures before the big thaw in the building began. He took some amazing shots of the icicles, many upside down, and really cool ice formations that took shape in the building over the decades.

Then somebody did a time lapse video of the defrost process, which is fun to watch.

 

Fire Breather Invades My Heat Wave Refuge.

I sure do seem to attract the unusual.

Fire breather Vincent Izzo does his stuff in
the middle of nowhere last week.

There I was during last week's hot spell at a secluded swimming hole near Bolton, Vermont. It's my favorite place in extremely hot weather.  Hardly anybody goes there, the water stays cold and the brook generates a cool breeze that bounces off the rocks and cools a person down no matter how high into the 90s the temperature is.

So I'm there, me and maybe a couple of other people, the water, lots of trees, nothing else.
Suddenly a gaggle of young people, probably in their 20s come in off the trail. They probably want to take a dip. Or not.

One of the young guys asks a person sitting on a rock if he can borrow his lighter. The smoker obliges. The young guy lights up a torch. He then takes a swig of some liquid and swishes it around his mouth. He holds his mouth near the torch and blows.

A huge burst of flames billows from the kid's mouth. Glad I had the camera.

So, in the middle of nowhere, with almost nobody around, a random person comes in and gives a fire breathing performance.

Our fire breather says his name is Vincent Izzo and he took up the activity as a hobby. You know, like stamp collecting and scrap booking. Only hotter.

Plus I wondered if this was the right kind of fun to have during the worst heat wave in eight years. But who am I to judge?

Izzo says he's honing his skills and hopes to offer more performances for hopefully paying crowds.

It's dangerous business, Izzo says, and I believe him. What if the fire blows in the wrong direction? Or flashes down into his lungs. He said he's already given himself chemical pneumonia once when he accidentaly ingested some of the ultra pure lamp oil he puts in his mouth to do the fire breathing.

If it gets hot again, I'll probably go to the same swimming hole. Just for the entertainment value. Next time, I might get a sword swallower. Or maybe Circ de Soleil.

You never know.