Harrod Blank (born 1963, in

Westminster, California Westminster is a city in northern Orange County, California, known for its many Vietnamese refugees who immigrated to the city during the 1980s. They settled largely in Little Saigon, and the city is known as the "capital" of overseas Vietnames ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

) is an American documentary filmmaker and

art car An art car is a vehicle that has had its appearance modified as an act of personal artistic expression. Art cars are often driven and owned by their creators, who are sometimes referred to as "Cartists". Most car artists are ordinary people with ...

artist living at

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He is the son of Gail, a ceramic artist, and filmmaker

Les Blank Les Blank (November 27, 1935 – April 7, 2013) was an American documentary filmmaker best known for his portraits of American traditional musicians. Life and career Leslie Harrod Blank Jr. was born November 27, 1935 in Tampa, Florida. He atten ...

. His works include the 1992 film ''Wild Wheels'', which documents the artcar phenomenon in America, and the 1998 follow-up ''Driving The Dream'', which focuses on the artists behind the cars. His films have been shown on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

, TBS, and in cities all over the USA. Harrod has created three art cars of his own: ''Oh My God!'', ''Pico de Gallo'' and ''The Camera Van''. Blank is also the co-founder (along with Philo Northrup) of one of the largest annual art car gatherings in the country - the Art Car Fest, held every September in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. He is largely responsible for the organization of an art car theme camp at the annual

Burning Man Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred ...

festival and is working on a documentary about the event. Blank is currently renovating a building complex in

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals *Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil W ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, United States, to become a museum and learning center for art cars; the name of the center will be "Artcar World".

Significant achievements

Harrod Blank is one of the people responsible for bringing the art car and the art car community, along with outsider and

visionary A visionary, defined broadly, is one who can envision the future. For some groups, this can involve the supernatural. The visionary state is achieved via meditation, lucid dreams, daydreams, or art. One example is Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-c ...

artcar artists, out of

Houston, TX Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

and the West and into the living rooms of much of mainstream America. After being picked up by PBS and TBS, Blank's art car movies were widely aired. At the same time he applied his photographic skills and energy to place art cars on the pages of many newspapers and magazines around the world. This presentation of the art car community to the world resulted in requests for art cars to be placed on exhibit in museums throughout the United States and in Europe. Harrod addressed this demand with his "Art Car Agency", which consists of a number of prominent artcar artists willing to lend out their vehicles for exhibit. Art cars are now accessible up close and personal in many more areas. Through his promotion of Houston's

Orange Show Jeff McKissack, a mail carrier in Houston, Texas, transformed a small suburban lot near his wood-frame house into The Orange Show in honor of his favorite fruit. Importance The Orange Show has evolved into the Orange Show Center for Vision ...

art car events including the parade, art car seminars and the Main Street Drag (an event which brings art cars to schools) Harrod helped to bring art cars into the world of education where they became the focus of hands-on workshops in schools across the country. Public appearances and lectures at museums and art car events helped Blank to use his personal experience to keep the art car phenomenon moving forward. Soon communities of art car artists sprung up in many eastern states and throughout the country. Some of these communities then partnered with local organizations such as schools, arts councils, and museums to create their own art car events mirroring those held in Houston.Doing Art Wheels ; Artscape becomes the vehicle for a joyful, visionary kind of expression.; INAL EditionJohn Woestendiek. The Sun. Baltimore, Md.: Jul 17, 2004. pg. 1.D Through Blank's work artcars started appearing in television commercials and as "drive ons" in movies much more often than the past. Harrod continues to be active in the art car community. He takes a personal interest and often appears at parades and events. This new visibility for art cars and art car artists does have a downside. For some visionary and outsider artists the temptation to come "inside" to the new artistic genre, where their work has been proclaimed as art and they have been encouraged to self-exhibit, has cost them their special status. Becoming outsiders again is, in the eyes of many critics, now impossible.

References

*Blank, Harrod
Art Cars on the Playa
retrieved January 29, 2007. *Blank, Harrod

retrieved February 2, 2007. *Howe, Desson

(review), ''The Washington Post'', August 21, 1992, retrieved January 29, 2007 *Internet Movie Database Inc
Harrod Blank
retrieved January 29, 2007. *McKinney, Dan

''On The Page Magazine'', July 2001, retrieved January 29, 2007.

Bibliography

Books and Film *Blank, Harrod, **1987, "In The Land Of The Owl Turds." 31 minute narrative student thesis film while at UC Santa Cruz, **1992, "Wild Wheels.",Starring: Casey Kasem, Darrell Staley Director: Harrod Blank, (DVD - Dec 17, 2005) **1993,"Wild Wheels."

Pomegranate Communications Pomegranate Communications is a publishing and printing company formerly based in Petaluma, California, having moved to Portland, Oregon in 2013. The company, founded by Thomas F. Burke, began by publishing works of psychedelic art from San Franci ...

, Inc. Rohnert Park, CA,(2nd Edition: Blank Books; November 15, 2001) **1998, "Driving The Dream, 29:00, made for National Geographic Television, broadcast October 1997 (VHS released 1998) **2002, "Art Cars: The Cars, the Artists, the Obsession, the Craft." (Paperback),Lark Books; 1st edition (May 28, 2002) **2007, "Art Cars: The Cars, the Artists, the Obsession, the Craft." (Paperback), Blank Books; 2nd edition (April, 2007) **2008, "Automorphosis" 76:38 released Jan 23, 2009 at Santa Barbara International Film Festival, (DVD Dec 17, 2010) *Gale Reference Team,Thomson Gale 2006, April 26 "Biography - Blank, Harrod (1963-)": From: Contemporary Authors

TML TML may refer to: * Taiwan Major League, former Taiwan baseball league * TML Entertainment, record label established for the Canadian band Triumph * Toronto Maple Leafs, Canadian pro ice hockey team * TransducerML, transducer markup language * T ...

(Digital) Periodicals *McCray, Nancy. review of Wild Wheels video, ''Booklist'', September 1, 1994, p. 62. *Rebecca, Miller. review of Art Cars: The Cars, the Artists, the Obsession, the Craft, ''Library Journal'', April 1, 2002, p. 99. *Grimes, William. "No, It's Not a Mad Vision. It's an Art Car. Want a Ride?", ''New York Times'', August 21, 1992, p. B3(N), *Grimes, William. "A Total of 1, 705 Candid Cameras", ''New York Times'', August 26, 1995, p. 37. *Min, Janice, "Auto Auteur: Harrod Blank Films Vehicular Fantasies", ''People'', April 18, 1994, pp. 57–58. *Staff writer, Publishers Weekly. "You Auto See This One!", ''Publishers Weekly'', January 28, 2002, p. 247. *Brooks, Burton H. review of Wild Wheels (video), ''School Library Journal'', December 1994, p. 61. *Holstrom, David. "Honk If You Love 'Art Cars'; Harrod Blank Was So Taken By The Reactions Of People, To His Edition", ''Christian Science Monitor''. Boston, Mass., Feb 26, 1997. pg. 1 *Richard, Paul. "When the Muse Goes Into Overdrive; The `Wild Wheels' Filmmaker and Cars That Wax Poetic" INAL Edition ''The Washington Post'', Washington, D.C.: Aug 22, 1992. pg. d.01 *Howe, Desson. "Body Shop of Bizarre", ''The Washington Post'', Washington, D.C.: Aug 21, 1992. p. WW38

External links

Art Car AgencyArt Car FestArt Car World Harrod Blank's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blank, Harrod 1963 births Living people People from Westminster, California American documentary filmmakers Artists from Berkeley, California Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area