Spooky Art Car Scares Customers at Raven's Grin Inn - Jim Warfield

Spooky Art Car Scares Customers at Raven's Grin Inn - Jim Warfield

There aren't many Haunted Inns that come complete with spooky art cars parked in the front but owner and resident Jim Warfield has done his best to give his clients the complete package.

In thetown of Mount Carroll, Ill is where you will find Raven's Grin Inn, a 19th-century mansion that's been turned into awacky house of horrors by Jim Warfield which just happens to be located a block away from a cemetery.

Warfield rescued the house from being demolished about 20 years ago and then went on to fill it
with all kinds of freaky art projects  like the "the last Elvis impersonator" that sits decayingin a wheelchair and of course plenty of creaky, spookyand secret passages. If you are feeling up to it you can get a group of 10 and go on a tour for $10 per person perhour but you must call in advance for reservations.

What got Jim a post here on art car central was one three spooky cars, a  87 Olds station Art Car wagon, "Custom cruiser" with arms that go up and down via a 79 T-Bird Vacuum /headlight door lifter device and a reptile hood with doll trapped in its bloody teeth. I think traveling cross country in one of these with the whole family is scary enough even without the skulls, but that's just me.

It took Jim about 5 years to rebuild his spooky art car to the point were felt comfortable taking it down to the local drag strip that allows anyone to race any car for $10. If speed doesn't kill then definitely a spooky induced heart attack would be enough to beat the competition. Go get em Jim:)

Spooky Art Car Scares Customers at Raven's Grin Inn - Jim Warfield

Spooky Art Car Scares Customers at Raven's Grin Inn - Jim Warfield

Spooky Art Car Scares Customers at Raven's Grin Inn - Jim Warfield

Tow Mater Now for Rent in Portland - Dad Gum

Tow Mater Now for Rent in Portland - Dad Gum

I swear I have seen Cars movie by Disney a billion times with my all time favorite Character Tow Mater the tow truck. For those of you without kids Tow Mater is the lovable character, sidekick and friend to the film's main protagonist, Lightning McQueen. If I have to explain it to you then you have been living under a rock for the past 6 years or don't have kids. Any ways David Emerson is the creator of this life size replicate of Tow Mater out in Portland Oregon and the best part is you can be the hero in your kids life and rent this art car for your kids birthday party, an experience they will never forget.

Tow Mater Now for Rent in Portland - Dad Gum

Tow Mater Now for Rent in Portland - Dad Gum

2,500 Toy Atlas Rainbow Art Car Installation

2,500 Toy Atlas Rainbow Art Car Installation

Here is a fantastic rainbow art car installation for the kid at heart made with 2,500 old toy cars by UK artist David T. Waller. The piece won him the People’s Award at the Arts Depot Open last year and a place of honor here on Art Car Central. I personal love art cars with repetitive glued object which reminds of a car out of the UK called General Cabuncle Art Car, that was covered in toy cars car made to look like the General Lee from my favorite show the Dukes of Hazzard.

2,500 Toy Atlas Rainbow Art Car Installation

2,500 Toy Atlas Rainbow Art Car Installation

Photos by David T Waller,  All rights reserved. Article via

Ford Festiva Crushed Art Car - Still life with stone and car

Festiva Crushed Art Car - Still life with stone and car

"Still life with stone and car", was created by Arkansas-born and Berlin-based artist  Jimmie Durham who dropped a mammoth 3 ton rock onto an unsuspecting 1999 Ford Festiva hatchback rock art car.

They used a crane to hoist, then drop the rock onto to the art carand then it was moved to final resting place, a roundabout in Walsh Bay Sidney, Australia for an outdoor sculpture display in 2004.

In the article I read it says that he and he wife went looking for the prefect art car for sale at a local car dealership. They went looking for a small sedan - or possibly a hatchback, preferably Australian-made, and definitely red; somewhere between $5000 and $10,000, and capable of supporting a two-ton rock dropped on its roof. Can you imagine the look on the car salesmen face on the last point but after some negotiating, eventually agreed to sell the car for $7800.

Here is what the artist had to say about his work:

"Like most of my recent work, this piece is concerned with monuments and monumentality, but also with 'nature'; that implacable hard stuff. In the first instance I am using the stone as a tool; to change the shape of an object. But I also, as usual, want to make stone more light, more moveable, even if it is in a fairly horrible way - like a road accident.. I do not think the piece is humorous; even though it turns out to be. The kind of face painted on the real version will, of course, depend upon the shape of the stone, but it will in any case be placid, and neither 'realistic' nor cartoon-like. To my way of thinking if the stone is simply a stone without a face it becomes a gesture but with the face painted on it, the work develops a strange narrative. "

I think they got rocking good deal on this ford festiva

Festiva Crushed Art Car - Still life with stone and car

Festiva Crushed Art Car - Still life with stone and car

Festiva Crushed Art Car - Still life with stone and car

via smh photos via madwips

10,000 pieces of scrap metal + 3 German Friends = Amazing Scrap Metal Mercedes 300SLR Art Car

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Three German friends set out to pay homage to the classic 1955 Mercedes 300 SLR ‘Uhlenhaut Coupe’ by recreating it entirely out of 10,000 pieces of SCRAP METAL. Armin Ciesielski, Peter Brakel and Walter Willer who work for a German company called Giganten aus Stahl (Giants of Steel) decided one day to recreate one of the greatest cars ever made and set out to make a life size mercedes art car. The three sculptors went through thousands of pieces of scrap metal for their recycled art car masterpiece and spent several months cutting and putting about 2200lbs of it all together. Although Ciesielski claims he could rebuild any car out of crap metal, he admits this particular project was more difficult due to the car's detailed intricacy and the work that went into making the car’s engine identical to the original. If any one is interested this Scrap Metal Mercedes Art Car, its for sale for about $90,000 and proudly featured here on Art Car Central.
via Offbeat Earth
 

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Mercedes 300 SLK Scrap Metal Art Car - Art Car Central

Original Mercedes 300 SLR

Photos via

Ghost Art Car Driving through Town

Parked Ghost Art Car - Art Car Central

There was a public art project on Tour in Basel by Austrian artist and designer Manfred Kielnhofer called  “Light Guards”, a project that included a ghost art car driving around town last June.

This Ghost Art Car is a large white van with hooded figures sitting on the roof, driving outside the fair, and the Bleifrei (which translates to Lead Free in German). Manfred Kielnhofer said “Art is like Jesus; it died and it’s coming again.” Thanks Manfred, for submitting to art car central.

Parked Ghost Art Car - Art Car Central

Parked Ghost Art Car - Art Car Central

Here is some of his other art

Rock and Roll Art Car

Rock and Rool Art Car

Rock and Roll art car is brought to by my friend Kelly Lyles creator of the "Excessories Odd-Yssey" art car. This rock art car was built to last and it goes 24k miles and hour, I think.

VW Art Car Tent For Sale - Get your Camping on!!!

Get ready for this years camping trip with a super 65 VW Camper Tent Art Car on sale at Firebox.com. Its an Officially licensed, four-person tent, full-size replica of the iconic 1965 VW Camper Van that will be sure to turn heads when you set it up. It comes in Red, Yellow and Blue but who says you have to settle, so go ahead and turn into an Art Car Tent.

Bowling Pin Art Car Strikes Out - 1785 Bowling Ball Pyramid

I hope the guy who owns this cute little bowling pin covered art car never has a run in with this giant 1785 bowling ball pyramid.

What is the sound of 1785 bowling balls striking a pin car? If it happens in the woods and no one is around does it make a sound?

Gravity Defying Lego Bike

Mutant Monday is brought to you by Brikapolis with this gravity defying
Lego Art Bike, to go along with these other lego art cars here on Art Car Central.

by Brickapolis

Tank Goes Balloonistic at Kids Party

This balloon tank was created by German artist Idee Inges who takes symbols of childhood parties and transforms them into a war tank: The quintessential weapon of destruction. Celebration and destruction? Or perhaps the celebration of destruction? I don't know what that means really I just found this on The Dirt Floor and it seemed just right to add it to my ever expanding collection of art tanks. Its very interesting to see two diametrically opposed objects brought together in a form of a tank made up of balloons, not so good for war but very good for birthday parties.

Kids 1 - Tank 0

Speed doesn't kill people, cars hanging from trees in Australia telling people that "speed kills", kills people

Again with the hanging car, but this time its a warning to other drivers in West Australia that "Speed Kills". But did did it ever occur to the marketing genius that distraction also kills. What is the point of slowing down only to run into another tree while trying to read the sign. Two weeks later your car is up on a tree down the street saying "Billboards Kill". Speed doesn't kill people, cars hanging from trees in Australia telling people that "speed kills", kills people. Photo by Owen

Art Cars Hanging Out To Dry in Chile

Art Cars Hanging Out To Dry in Chile - Photo by Eliseo Fernandez / Reuters

Just got a tip from Kelly Lyles owner of Excessories Odd-Yssey about some pretty art cars hanging out to dry in Valparaiso, Chile during the National Festival Of Arts. Shown here with Generik Vapeur playing his bagpipe which I guess helps paint dry faster???

The Fantastic Life of Mercedes Art Cars

As the title sponsor of Berlin’s Fashion Week, Mercedes-Benz placed some of its own designs into striking art installations meant to represent the eras in which the cars were built.
As part of the “Recollection Quartett,” staged by Mercedes-Benz and MoMu Fashion Museum, Antwerp, Belgian artist and photographer Frederik Heyman placed four cars amidst updated stereotypes of the years between 1967 and 1991.
For instance, though the SL roadster shown above was built in Germany, the artist said it came into its own on Sunset Boulevard during the freewheeling 1970s. Though we seem to recall gas lines, Watergate and skyrocketing interest rates, Heyman and fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm pay tribute to those who spent the entire Carter administration on a mattress at Plato’s Retreat.
Interestingly, the 1980s-era W123 wagon best known in the United States for shuttling wealthy suburbanites between tennis lessons and the pool at the club was popular among West German lumberjacks, tradesmen and outdoors enthusiasts. Mannequins in shoulder pads surrounding an S-Class coupe underneath fragments of a globe made from a chess board represent wealth and power in the late ’80s, while the models’ long shadows show they’re also pawns in that game.
About the only installation we can instantly relate to is the one surrounding the rock-solid W115. Faceless businesspeople in gray flannel suits look like they’ve stepped straight out of a Magritte painting, while a secretary in the front seat types out an advertisement in Arabic that reads “Taxi for sale,” a nod to the livery service the venerable “Stroke 8″ models have offered around the world.
While the settings are certainly high-concept, they’re also proof that cars are as much a product of their respective eras as they are representative of those times.
Photos: Mercedes-Benz

The W115 was popular among business types and cab drivers in far-flung locales

Bobby Brown drove a 560 SEC, and so did world power players in the late '80s.

By Keith Barry January 21, 2011

Mercedes Art Car or Illuminati Conspiracy

I am not sure what a half a Mercedes art car with the face of Karl Max and Jimi Hendrix means but here are some thoughts.

1) Goofy kid who thinks that Karl and Jimi were in a band together.

2) Artistic commentary: Karl Marx a German communist philosopher wrote against the capitalistic system in his Communist Manifesto is represented in this half Mercedes Art Car.

3) Its part of a secret government conspiracy and the government media complex funded by George Soros backed by the Bilderberg Group with roots in the Illuminati.  Their goal is to take over the world, and create a one world government in which the elite will rule the masses. They will do this by collapsing our current economic system and then setting up a new system making it mandatory for everyone to get implanted with a bio chip aka "the mark of the beast" in order to buy and sell products. They will start by cutting Mercedes cars in half, painting them with images of Karl Marx and then attaching them to federal buildings as a sign that the end is near.


4) Just a Mercedes Art Car.

What do you think this means???

HMS Uranus Art Car - Boldy Going Were Few Dare To Go

The HMS Uranus Art Car is boldly going were few dare to go. Oregon watch out!!!

Chicken Coupe 1971 Morris Traveler Art Car

Chicken Coup Art Car - After

Michael Thompson is the creator of this Chicken Coupe Art Car made from a beat up old 1971 Morris Traveler in the heart of Norfolk Broads.

He went looking for something a little more unusual to make into a hen house and asked a friend of his who owned a body-repair shop to keep his eyes peeled for an interesting vehicle that he could use.
Weeks went by when one day this beat up old Morris showed up on its way to the scrap yard and Michael took about thirty seconds to decide that this was what he was looking for in chicken coupe art car. 100 quid (bucks) later and a pint of beer it was delivered to Michael's House.

The front end was a total loss so he chopped it up and used the back end that went on to become this really cool chicken coupe art car for Michael's four hens complete with ramp and bumper sticker.

His final words on the matter were... "Re-use, Recycle... one planet - to the max!" via

Chicken Coupe Art Car - Before

Aboriginal Toyota Art Car Basket made from Grass

This Australian Aborginal Toyota Art Car Basket was created using Tjanpi Grass by the Tjanpi Weavers Group headed by Artis Kantjupayi Benson using a lesser-known Aboriginal weaving art practice.

The Grass Toyota art car ended up being 16ft long by 13 feet wide and 5m long, and 8.2 ft high and was was commissioned by the World Expo in Hanover Germany.

While Kantjupayi sat on a chair leaning on her long walking stick, she oversaw the younger women drawing the shape of the vehicle with chalk on the concrete floor of the Blackstone hall. Minyerri grass, a wiry grass found in the sandy country approximately 20kms from Blackstone, was used in the construction. The grass was fashioned into coils and attached with jute twine and wire to welded steel framed panels covered with chicken mesh. The steel frames were made by Perth sculptor Claire Bailey, adhering to the women’s designs. All in all there were twenty artists involved over a month long period to realise the work and there was much celebration, hilarity and joy on its completion.
via

Cop and Robber VW Art Car Sculpture by LInda Bakke

This Cop and Robber VW Art Car Sculpture was created and sent in by artist Linda Bakke from Norway. Two vw bugs welded together and painted, one as a cop and the other a robber, so I guess the cop got his perp.