CarbageRun 2022
On Tuesday, August 16th, I received my most interesting request yet: to paint a pick-up truck that would join this year’s rarities rally called the CarbageRun; and have it finished within a week! I had never painted a car before nor ever heard of a CarbageRun, so I said HELL YES!
Dream Come True
As a starting artist, paintings sell slowly and commissions roll in from time to time, which are often not what you’d actually like to be painting. This request was the opposite! It was a dream of mine to paint a car since I grew up watching MTV’s early 2000’s TV show “Pimp My Ride”, remember that awesome show?? Even though I know nothing about cars, I thought it’d be the coolest thing to have my art on a car driving down the highway for everyone say “Wow look at that!”.
So much in our cities looks the same, surrounded by dark brick buildings and grey concrete pavements, mostly black and white shiny cars and just a splash of color in a few trees by the side of the road or a store’s simple marketing sign. That’s why I’ve had a love for art but specifically street art. These huge, unique murals on a random old building would have me smiling wide-eyed with hopes of that one day being me. Also seeing someone wearing art for clothes instead of your regular beige sweater, a kid’s self-pimped high school backpack or one of those VW surf busses decorated with flowers and peace signs; I love everything about it!
It standing out in the crowd is one and might be their only goal but it shows me people choose their own style of living. Saying no to the mainstream, overlooking efficiency and choosing to express authentically. That is a vulnerable decision in a prejudiced society, it takes courage to stand out and stay true to yourself. It restores humanity in a seemingly well-oiled machine, it inspires to create, to be, to evolve; rather than to buy, to merge, essentially to yield.
That’s why I continually choose to make art, it not only gets my ideas out into the world, it also reveals my deepest feelings and dreams that are more difficult to communicate verbally sometimes. Not just mine, I visualise other people’s goals and emotions, to inspire and embrace them.
Obviously this project wasn’t that deep though :p regardless it’s why I do what I do and loved this assignment so much.
Girls First
As I mentioned earlier, this family would be joining this summer’s edition of the CarbageRun. It’s the ultimate roadtrip, a 5-day adventure-filled rally down some of the more beautiful roads of Europe, in a car that can’t cost more than €500. They’d be traveling from the Netherlands to Montenegro and back starting from Austria on the 29th of August until September 2nd, with 500 other contestants in the craziest looking cars you can imagine!
Not only that, they decided to add two more elements to this trip: the entire journey would be documented by videographer Steyn Wijsman of NiCaSt B.V. and they’d be raising funds for a charity along the way. The collected amount would be donated to Plan International; an organization focused on establishing equal rights and opportunities for young girls globally. Many girls are still discriminated against, forced into marriage as children and lack the opportunities they deserve. With donations like this, we can tremendously improve their situation, position and ability to choose their own future.
I’d decided to not only contribute art related to this good cause but to donate 10% of what I earned on this project. They ended up reaching a whopping € 2.534!!
Enter: Moi!
With 4000km to go, through Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro, with a car that has been going strong for more than 25 years and hoping to raise at least €2.500, this was quite the challenge. My own challenge however was to design, paint and seal this car’s shell within the week!
Their initial request was to paint the words “Collecte Bus” (aka Collection Bus, referring to the fundraising) on all three sides of the truck’s trailer sail. Though as this sail was quite large, painting its entirety was slightly out of budget; plus a road trip with crazy cars deserves a crazier idea!
After some divine Pinterest’ing (one of my favourite parts of my job!), I decided using coloured markers directly on the car would be the quickest way to decorate it. Plus the art should relate to the fundraising their trip wants to achieve. Words like: I Am Woman, freedom, expression, bright future, shine, empowered came to mind. I’d found a picture of a VW bus decorated with a female face and colorful hair flowing behind her along the side, this is the direction the client wanted to go. The trailer sail would then be covered in large Plan International stickers, though I thought if there’s 500 other contestants participating in this trip, why not organize an engaging creative experience. Let them help decorate the trailer sail with the markers; write their names if donated, doodle something fun, whatever they want. Hopefully this would attract more people to the truck, build more awareness for the fundraising and who knows what the trailer will look like the next day!
Get To Work!
I started sketching different ideas of the woman with flowing hair on my iPad, finally landing on the perfect design. Thick hair strands with big sections coloured in with a maximum of 6 bright colours aside from black and white, filled with various fun patterns. This would be a fun depiction of hair flowing freely in the wind, expressing how it wants, the simple outline of her face with her chin reaching up strong towards the sun and projecting shining sunbeams forward; remember the words I mentioned before? On the hood of the car I’d write “Collecte Bus” in vivid pink bubble font letters so it’s clearly read from a distance. I bought plenty of quick-dry acrylic markers in various sizes, cleaned the car of grease and got started!
Quick learning!
It took me 4 full days, the last day a straight 10 hours of painting! Some days clouded with some drizzles of rain, others sunny with 27C. Many people in the neighbourhood walked by to see what unusual activity was happening in their street, some stayed to have a chat, some came to admire the art’s progression daily, some took my card and asked if I could paint their shed or camper, one kindly brought me a popsicle to refresh in the heat! Even a journalist from Omroep West came by and took my (somewhat awkward) picture for an article he was writing about the client’s trip. I filmed the entire process with my phone from different angles, shared the top moments (and some funny/embarrassing ones) to social media, kept energized with salads, smoothies and cookies while applying plenty of sunscreen. I quickly learned which colors needed more layers for smooth coverage so I could be faster on the other side, what patterns would take less time to draw and to leave the detailing till the end.
I finished up a day early! Exhausted by the end of it but so incredibly happy with how it turned out! Humbled by some mistakes yet simultaneously impressed that this art piece came from my hands. What an incredibly fun opportunity, full of useful lessons and new motivation for this starting artist!
Now that this project is over and done
Over To My Next Adventure!
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Contact Me
and I’ll get back to you!