As a part of the artsEdge Festival at Seattle Center, we exhibited some 30 Art Cars along the side of the International Fountain, virtually at the foot of the fabled Space Needle. We created a new art car--the Art King--on site, hosted a way trendy fashion show and awards ceremony Saturday night, and introduced art cars to the Pacific Northwest public in a wonderful weekend of play and interplay. Children of all ages loved it!
We had 33 art cars in our big parade, including the Lincoln Toe Truck and Metro Art Coach. More showed up at the Seattle
Center Grounds. Extremo the Clown entertained with a skull puppet from within Mirabilis Statuarius Vehiculum, while across the way Bubble man cavorted blowing bubbles for the assembled kids. Others
of us were seen jumping out of cakes, eating fire, and doing schtick. Word has it
the Blow-Out will become an annual event--certainly the premier art car event in the
Pacific Northwest; held in conjunction with artsEdge at Seattle Center--the
beautiful park where Seattle families gather to play!
Seattle's first-ever Invitational Art Car Parade was a cataclysmic, continental concatenation of quintessentially cool coaches! More than thirty amazing art cars from across the land and Canada paraded for the spectators' pleasure! Wow!! Our parade route started at the Lincoln Toe Truck at Republican and Fairview, proceeded past the TV cameras northbound on Fairview down the east side of Lake Union past the Fred Hutch and Zymogenetics, then doubled back north on Eastlake parallel to I-5 as far as Denny Way. Turning west on Denny, we traversed the historic Denny Regrade past the back side of downtown, raising eyebrows as motorists stopped at cross streets to eyeball our cool cavalcade. Crossing under the historic Monorail tracks, we entered the gates to Seattle Center near KeyArena (that's the Seattle Coliseum with a few mil in renovations, for you who remember it at the '62 World's Fair). Proceeding through throngs of admiring, bouquet-tossing art car fans, we pulled our snorting steeds to a halt beside the awesome International Fountain, on the grassy mall at the heart of Seattle Center, and left them there on display throughout the weekend!
Participants came from around the block and from the antipodes...from Vancouver, the Bay Area, Spokane, Portland, Corvallis...even faraway northern British Columbia! It was a weekend we'll savor in memory for many a year, as the historic breakthrough of Art Cars into Seattle's public consciousness. We made our entrance in a welter of media hyperbole and flat-out sophomoric shenanigans.
Art Cars Rock!!
See the Cars that Came to
Seattle Art Car Blow-Out!
SASS's Page of Rad Art Car Links!
On to Gallery of the Sublime & Silly
Featuring Beatnik Graphics by Ashleigh Talbot!!
Burn Rubber to Larry's Photography Site
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All photos shown in this web site are copyright © 1999 by Larry S. Neilson. Reproduction, sale, or use of any images shown herein without prior written permission of the artist is expressly prohibited. To negotiate terms for picture usage, call (206) 297-8019 or e-mail at docschlk@speakeasy.org.