Bisbee planter car
You'll never know what you'll see in Bisbee, Arizona!
By Chris Dunmire
An e-mail tip-off this summer pointed me towards an exhibit in New York City featuring Ted Mikulski's Art Car. How very cool! I thought, as I was reminded of another art car I had seen only months earlier in Bisbee, Arizona.
Yes, this spring during one of Bisbee's farmer's market festivals, I saw — for the very first time in my life — a car that had been transformed into a planter. Yes, a flower planter! The owner of this masterpiece towed it into the fairgrounds and set it up for display: open doors, hatch and hood. Above is a snapshot of the planter car with a few close-up shots to follow:
Inside the car
Under the hood
Now, artist folk in and around Bisbee are no strangers to recycling items into this manner of artistic expression. A leisurely cruise through Bisbee's historic downtown district will reveal all sorts of artistic surprises, from decorated cars and homes to unique kinds of performance art (yes, nearly-naked half-baked tan man sitting on the fountain, I'm talking to you!). In fact, downtown Bisbee is where I first encountered Dog-Cat-Rat (Mouse) Man:
Dog-Cat-Rat (Mouse) Man (His legs, anyway)
Dog-Cat-Rat man was interesting character I encountered a few years ago. How he managed to train these creatures to sit on top of one another with ease was well-worth the oohs and ahhs that came out of me and my companions as we watched him walk up and down the old mining town main street with the cat riding top of the dog. He pulled the mouse out of his pocket and set it on the cat just long enough for spectators to photograph the spectacle and tip him (he made it clear that he wasn't charging money for the performance). What a story, eh? I've seen him on YouTube as a clip of a news show one time. Don't know if it's still there.
I never got around to talking with the owner of that planter car and finding out what it was all about. What kind of questions do you ask such an artist? What plants and flowers thrive the best in the trunk?
Anyway, I was too enthralled with the picture taking process and getting proof at what my eyes saw. For one thing I know about the things you see in Bisbee, Arizona, is that if you don't take a picture or two, you might never see it again. In the case of half-baked fountain man, that's just fine. •
© 2010 Chris Dunmire www.chrisdunmire.com. All rights reserved. |
