The peaceful hood mandala was the first blemish on the factory paint job of the author's car, an '87 Honda CRX-HF which he had driven off the showroom floor many years earlier. (Click here for a detail view of the painting; here for Anatomy of an Art Car.) But the Art Car bug had bitten, and hordes of plastic chachkis and  really weird stickers soon followed, reflecting the car's split personality (fundamentally Japanese, but with a lingering fondness for surreal Sixties-style art and jokey Deadhead memorabilia).

At Seattle's Art Car Blow-Out 2000, the Buggy debuted her new look. A four-foot Buddhist stupa, built to traditional Nepalese design, sprouted from the car's roof. A 13-inch tall porcelain Amitabha Buddha sits in his niche at the front of the stupa's dome, while strings of colorful prayer flags flutter gaily in the breeze. The car rocks to tunes broadcast from the 100W/channel waterproof marine speakers built into the dome.  The car's theme song for parades features the slashing guitars and pulsing piano of  Steely Dan's Bodhisattva. When parked, the sound system generates an aura of Himalayan serenity through the Chants of the Gyuto Monks and Hun Huur Tu Mongolian folk music. The dome itself is sculpted from pure pink Bondo. Car and stupa are decorated with fifty golden statuettes, mostly on Buddhist or Asian spiritual themes.

The Buggy's body paintings include comic dragons, a cartoon portrait of Doc Schlock, two-legged fishes, swirling comets, and a flying saucer with two green aliens in the cockpit. The car's exterior includes scores of Buddhas, a brace of Kuan Yins and dozens of figures of Ho T'ai. The side windows are plastered with funky stickers for snowboard companies, roots music bands, and fine schools from which the owner was expelled in the course of his reckless youth. The tailgate hatch supports a rack of Buddhist statuettes symmetrically arranged around an 11-inch Ho-T'ai in the aspect of Utter Benevolence. And the dashboard is a minature shrine, complete with velvet altarcloth, golden tassels, and Seattle's only documented in-dash Buddha. A Bodhisattva sits at the wheel (on a good day). This car broadcasts good "Car-Ma" wherever the Wheels of Dharma take it to. Rhonda's vanity plates say it all: TOOCOOL!

The miniature pagoda on top focuses spiritual energy from the Beyond and radiates it outwards wherever the car travels. Mystical mantras and sacred objects enshrined in the stupa's Buddha-eyed harmika (reliquary) provide the source of this spiritual power, which is then amplified and broadcast by the stupa itself, built following a design said to originate with the Buddha Shakyamuni himself. The stupa is topped with a sheet-brass mandala in the shape of a flame, with the Wheel of Dharma on one side and a peaceful Buddha head on the other. Click here for builder's photos showing the pagoda's construction.

The Buddha Buggy and several other Pacific Northwest Art Cars were featured on TV on Car Crazy on the Speedvision Network (August 2000) and  American Journey: The Car Artists on the Travel Channel (April 2000). The Buddha Buggy also was seen on KING-5 TV's Evening Magazine twice in '98 and once in '97  (together with those shameless exhibitionists, Dr. Schlock and Leopard Lady, discussing the Art Car movement with host John Stofflet and national Art Car guru Harrod Blank). Rhonda led Seattle's Art Cars in the First Invitational Seattle Art Car Parade at the Art Car Blow-Out held in June '99, in the parade at Blow-Out 2000, and is a regular participant in the How Berkeley Can You Be Parade -- part of the Bay Area Art Car Fest held every September. The car also will be seen at the Tacoma Art Museum's Family Folk Fest June 3, 12-4 at the Museum.

Banner by Sign-A-Rama, Seattle

TEAM RHONDA: Lettering and Buddha underpainting: Larry Steiner. Design, all other painting: Larry Neilson (Dr. Schlock). One-shot Enamel and Krylon Auto Enamel on steel. Sculpture from International District souvenir shops, Seattle & Hong Kong, and hand-cast by Larry Neilson; cast resin, urethane, plaster, and porcelain statuary; 1995 onwards. Stupa platform and harmika of wooden construction; dome sculpted from Bondo over styrofoam armature, erected 2000. Stupa Team: Steve Anderson, sculptor; Terry Robb, sound/electronics; Bert Bradley, woodworking consultant; Kim David Hall, metalworking consultant; Craig Nelson, sheet metal shop; Lobsang Lama, spiritual consultant; Far East Handicrafts, original stupa plans, prayer flags, and chachkis; Ken Gerberick, parking Buddha; Harry Kirschner, spire lathework; John Cornell, body repair consultation and assistance; Larry Neilson, bankroll, concept & execution.

All photos shown on this web page are copyright © 2000, 2001 by Larry Neilson. Reproduction or any other use of these images without prior written consent of the copyright holder is strictly prohibited.