artDRIVEN

You'll never guess who stopped by our house this morning! This guy...

Grayson Harcourt -- executive VP at artDriven. If you are a female living anywhere in the Wimberley area, you've probably spent time with, or at least heard of, his mom Sue Ellen Stavrand. For many years she owned the Old Oaks Ranch fiber arts center, home to all those adorable alpacas. Like many people who have spent time in Houston, Sue Ellen always wanted an Art Car. Now that she and her son have partnered up to open artDRIVEN, her wish has finally come true!

When I forwarded my hubby the note talking about their new enterprise, I might have made a casual comment along the order of "this would be fun to do to the Mini." Next thing I know he's already set up an appointment with the guy, and says to me "Oh yeah, they can even use some of your own art as inspiration for the design, so you might want to sketch something up."

Grayson's Dashboard

Talk about pressure! Anywho, I was doing my morning walk yesterday, watching the sun come up, when I thought about this truck we're always seeing around town, painted the colors of a Hill Country sunset. That got me to thinkin' about something like this.

What if I wrapped the Mini in ombred watercolors, one bleeding into the next?

On the "warm" side of the car, you could have something like a pen and ink sketch of our favorite balcony corner, where you can watch the sun come up.

The rear end could become my Seasonality business card.

On the "cool" side you could have a sketch of someone toobin' down the river under some huge bald cypress trees. Then you're back where you started.

Alas, the cost was a good bit more that we had anticipated, and it's hard to justify investing that kind of money in a car that's already eight years old, and coming up on 100,000 miles - especially when we've got two kids getting married in the coming year.

But, wouldn't it be a bloody blast to drive a car like that in the Wimberley Parade each summer?