The culture of the
United States has been described by some as a "car culture." Unique in the
world, the transportation infrastructure and urban form of the U.S.A. since the
early 20th century has overwhelmingly been developed around a single mode, the
private automobile. Owning and driving one's own car is a preoccupation of most
teenagers here as a declaration of independence. In most metropolitan areas of
the U.S., only 10% of all households do not have at least one car available.
Advertising to induce new car purchases is incessant on commercial television.
Dependence upon the car for individualistic mobility by most Americans is a
given. The most popular weekly program on National Public Radio stations is a
show called "Car Talk." So embedded is the automobile in the American psyche,
one could characterize many Americans as car crazy.
Some people do not
take their automobiles quite so seriously. They decorate their cars in
imaginative color schemes and designs, sometimes affix figurines or toys to the
bodies or dashboard, and often modify the original body into diverse forms such
as a dragon, a telephone receiver, or a power boat. In 1974, a countercultural
performance group named Ant Farm buried a set of big-finned Cadillacs nose-down
in a field along Route 66 near Amarillo, Texas as a statement mocking "car
culture." Nowadays, art cars do not seem so exceptional, but they still attract
attention and comment. In the traffic congestion so prevalent in Seattle, it is
always fun to see an art car on the street.
Cascadia Artpost
honors the appearance of the art car in American life in the issuance of a sheet
of 50 artistamps (only eight are shown here). The images appearing on the stamps
were taken at the art car show held during the June 2008 Fremont Street Fair
(Fremont is a city neighborhood in Seattle adjacent to the Ballard neighborhood
that is the home of Cascadia Artpost), plus the Honda art car in the process of
creation by my spouse. May you too enjoy these mobile images of artistic
expression.
3 comments:
GRACIAS GRACIAS GRACIAS por el autitoooooo!!!
Un fuerte abrazo
Samuel.
I received the most AMAZING sheet of your cartistamps yesterday!! They're FABOOOO!!! Just love 'em! Still can't decide whether to frame them or use them!
Major squeaks!
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