Sam Jones, designer of Vincent’s Dream, in the driver’s seat of his art car. Photo taken by Steven Burgess, Houston Newsroom.
Last month, art cars lined up the streets of Downtown Houston for the 39th Annual Houston Art Car Parade.
Put on by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, this year’s parade featured over 250 cars.
One of the cars featured in this year’s parade is Vincent’s Dream, an old van repurposed by retired art teacher Sam Jones.
“We were doing unit study on Vincent Van Gogh,” says Jones. “We just fell in love with his life story and his struggles.”
Jones, along with his wife Nancy, previously created two art cars for the parade: Magnet Mania (1999) and Pepto Gizmo (2000).
Jones’ third art car, Vincent’s Dream, features famous artworks by Van Gogh, such as Starry Night, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe, and Sunflowers.
“I think [Van Gogh] lived his life to the fullest as best he could,” says Jones. “And, maybe that’s a good lesson for all of us.”
Also featured in this year’s parade was The Beatle, a 1969 Volkswagen inspired by The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.
The Beatle was designed by Rice University alum, Greg Marshall (Class of ‘86).
Marshall bought the car for $1 from a friend of a friend. He says that “I could have bought two working Volkswagen Beetles for what it ended up costing me to fix it.”
He designed the car while being a Girl Scout Troop leader, enlisting the help from four girl scouts.
“The Fab Four came together and I had the design,” says Marshall. “[In] 40 hard days [and] nights, we managed to get it painted.”
Marshall’s love for creating art cars has extended into the classroom. In 2012, Marshall taught the first Art Car making class at Rice University titled Art Car 101.
“We had a wonderful group of students who got together,” says Marshall. “They chose to create a Centennial owl.”
Attendees of the Houston Art Car Parade gather around the Art is the Cure car. Photo provided by Toby McCraw.
Another example of art cars leaving the classroom was in the case of Art is the Cure.
Designed by students at the Impact Leadership Academy at Wilson, art instructor Toby McCraw strives to provide his class with unique art opportunities.
Last year, McCraw’s class exhibited their artwork at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) as part of the Shared Grounds exhibit.
“I want [my students] to just go beyond their estimation,” says McCraw “I want them to be like, wow, I did this in middle school.”
This year, McCraw received a car for his class to design, a donation from Gilman Honda.
When designing the car, the class of elementary to middle school boys started out with small canvases.
“Those figures that you saw on our car, that started off with sketches,” says McCraw. “They graduated to a canvas and then… [made the design] a lot bigger and putting it on the car.”
Students taking these art courses with McCraw were inspired by the real-world impact they saw art had within their communities. Inspired by this, his class titled the car Art is the Cure.
“The kids are saying that art is the cure for everything,” says McCraw. “Art is their escape and that’s the message that they were trying to put out.”