Watching Nancy Knauf tool down the road in her rainbow-painted/craft-studded/bejeweled-by-junque art car might make you think she’s happy all the time. Even when stuck in traffic.
But this happy car isn’t all about happy.
Nancy, 54, asked me to elaborate on the dark side of art in this blog. She wants people to know she takes art seriously, even though it might look like it’s just wild fun by a woman who whistles while she works. ”There is a message in the madness,” she says. “Life isn’t black- and-white. There is a seriousness behind the whimsy. Some of this stuff comes out of pain. Part of all of this is being different. Coping with injustice and unfairness. It’s my way of deflecting it.”
It’s also about her desire to keep things going. ”This is a throwaway society,” she says.
Her car is functional art. Those braided strips of yarn rimming the windshield? “They are gaskets, actually, because my car was starting to leak,” she says. “It’s cheaper than buying rubber gaskets.”
And, she says, it’s a statement that you don’t need to have a Prius or Lexus to ride down the street in style.
There are more Nancies out there. Some cities have big art car shows for people to show off their canvases on wheels.
Check out this site: www.artcarfest.com/
“On the score of 1-10,” the humble artist says, “my car is a 2.”
Maybe so. But her art fence is second to none:
Her light switch covers are sold at a shop in Old Colorado City:
And her husband Frank is one cool guy:
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Melissa Bailey, health science/forensic science major, motto
