Saturday, April 8 – Houston Art Car Parade Weekend honors the DRIVE to CREATE and the ARTIST IN EVERYONE! It shows the creative, energetic and fun side of Houston, the Art Car Capital of the World! This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art awarded $19,000, using these criteria: Overall theme, Craftsmanship, Design, Originality, Transformation. (Taken from the website.)
The crowd was huge. They estimate between 300,000-350,000 people watched. The parade was led off by the Soul Band of South Texas State, which pretty well set the mood with their great music and dancing routines. Everyone seems to be having a great time – even the Mayor was in a car and received shouts of support from the crowd.
Here are some but not all of the winners.
MAYOR'S CUP - Grand Trophy and $2,000
"Purple Reign" by Heights High School, Rebecca Bass teacher.
HALL OF FAME - Grand Trophy and $2,500
"Sashimi Tabernacle Choir" - Richard Carte
This one is a hoot. All the fish sing.
FIRST PLACE ART CARS:
"Boney Whipman" by Andy Hazell
"Char Car" by Mark "Scrapdaddy" Bradford
BEST YOUTH GROUP: FIRST PLACE (TIE) - GRAND TROPHY & $1,000 EACH
"Hyppalectryon's Candy Dreams" by Frank Black Middle School, teachers Julon Pinkston and Sarah Reavis
"Fins and Needles" by Shadow Creek High School, Courtney Werden teacher
They used needlepoint to make the entire cover. Must have taken days and days to complete.
BEST PAINTED CAR: FIRST PLACE - Grand Trophy and $500
"Homage to the artist Pedro Linares Lopez" by Mary Anne & Charles Fried
BEST CYCLE: FIRST PLACE - Grand Trophy & $500
"The Mardi Craw - Crawfish Scooter" by William Workman
BEST POLITICAL STATEMENT: FIRST PLACE - Grand Trophy and $500
"Tweet Tweet" by Shelly Buschur and The Birds
This one was great. Had all of Trump’s famous quotes.
BEST MUSIC: FIRST PLACE - Grand Trophy and $500
"Green Goblet and the Tribal Lillies accompanied by the Rear Trailer Band" by Mitchell Clemons
The following cars did not win, but we thought were pretty cool!
The water on the roof of this truck kept time to the different songs that were played.
It was a great way to enjoy a beautiful day in Houston. We capped it off with a happy hour at one of the nearby taverns with an outdoor patio. Thanks Carrie for spending the day with your parents and sharing your “life in the big city” with us! It was a blast!
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
