Wild Wheels - Pomegranate Artbooks

Petaluma, California: Pomegranate Art Books and Publications, 1993. First Edition . Hard Back. Near Fine/Near Fine. 10 3/4" x 9. Smetts, Betty - Design. 95 Pages. Dark green boards with silver spine lettering. Yellow endpapers. There are two very small punctures in the spine area that reveal the white material below. No other defects noted to the book and its interior text and illustration pages are near flawless. The dust jacket has the same punctures and from that it is clear that something small and sharp penetrated into the book's spine area below. In the late 1980s filmmaker Harrod Blank crisscrosse~ 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 Darrel "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.