Photos by Ellen Hardy
Harrod Blank’s film looks into the minds and hearts of a delightful collection of eccentrics, visionaries, and just plain folks who have transformed their autos into artworks. Automorphosis screens Sunday, Feb. 28 at 1:40 p.m.
Salem artist Ellen Hardy shares the story of her daughter’s art car:
The 1989 Dodge Dynasty was first painted in 2001 by Frank Stella, the Boston born minimalist painter, with a team of students from Phillips Academy in Andover.
As an alum and a visiting artist, Frank Stella asked the Andover community to bring vehicles to an outside area where they could be painted by a student art class.
First, an Andover math teacher wanted to give his mother’s Dodge Dynasty to his daughter but thought she’d like it a whole lot more if it got the art class paint job. She did and kept the car for a few years until is was sold to another faculty member for his daughter.
This next owner was a documentary filmmaker who took the car on shoots where it was often marked again and again. In fact, one Boston firehouse contributed to the car’s growing layers of color before it was sold to me, an art faculty member . The car had sat outside my office for a few years after its ‘01 paint job.
When it went up for sale again in 2008 I bought it for my daughter, Ali Weaver. Ali liked to paint and had done some murals so I knew she would enjoy this vehicle as her first car. Coming from a family of artists, I thought it had personality and it would be fun for Ali to enjoy sharing the Dynasty with her friends.
In fact, for her friends it was the car of choice for arriving to a party.Parked on Salem streets it got tagged by many— some Ali knew and some she did not. Not knowing some of the contributors proved to be an issue with the community impact unit who questioned her more than once about its decorations.
It proved to be great fun because she carried paint cans in the trunk and friends could spontaneously enjoy adding to it. Before Ali moved to San Francisco, the Salem Gazette approached her about doing a story on the car which ran with many photos in the Salem Life section. The car nearly made its 20th birthday…
