Four miles of yarn on a car

April 10, 2008 3:26 PM

Timothy Klein gets art. I mean, he really gets it. And he likes cars. So when he decided to become an artist, he covered a 1967 Chrysler Imperial Crown luxury car with yarn. Correct, yarn. Then, Tim didn't just show his car off to the local cruzers at the Dairy Queen. No. Tim took it to Artscape at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore in 2002, where he met other famous automotive artists like Harrod Blank and Chris Hubbard. He took it to the Outsider Art Fair in New York in 2003. Wherever he takes the Yarn Car, he documents the trips on his site. He got featured in Reader's Digest and "made Diane Sawyer giggle". Tim will be in Houston on May 10 for the 2008 Art Car Parade. Don't miss the yarn phone in the car.
posted by beagle (17 comments total)

Holy shit that thing is cool looking. Must be a bitch to maintain.
posted by absalom at 3:29 PM on April 10

Needs kitten insurance
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 3:41 PM on April 10 [4 favorites]

pull this thread as I drive away
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 3:54 PM on April 10

impractically delicious!
posted by dan g. at 4:16 PM on April 10

cruzin in santa cruise!
posted by quonsar at 4:22 PM on April 10 [1 favorite]

Huh. Today is the first day of the portion of my life I spend realizing that I need a yarnphone.
posted by cortex at 4:27 PM on April 10 [2 favorites]

I remember once seeing a van that was covered in multicolored patches of shag carpet, and never thought I'd find the vehicle that could best it in my imagination. Behold!
posted by metabrilliant at 4:44 PM on April 10

This was at the 2007 Maker Faire in Austin and I'll have a video interview with him uploaded when I get home. >:)
posted by BrianBoyko at 4:50 PM on April 10

I have actually talked to this guy via email a few years ago when I found the yarn car site from some web surfing (a blog?). Really nice person. Really cool car.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 5:48 PM on April 10

I looked at the html of the first link. I almost died.

Neat car, though.
posted by patr1ck at 6:12 PM on April 10

I had the pleasure of working for Tim for a couple of years. Great guy, and the art car is really neat. His girlfriend also has a really beautifully restored old taxi cab.
posted by heathkit at 6:25 PM on April 10

patr1ck writes "I looked at the html of the first link. I almost died."

The doctype is HTML 4.0 Transitional. Actually, if this were 1997, I'd be somewhat impressed that the code was clean and looked like it was done by hand. But, yeah, it's not 1997.

Still, no generator tag, and no marquee text or "under construction" gifs. Better than a lot of sites of a decade ago.
posted by krinklyfig at 6:50 PM on April 10

And the car is just seriously badass. I remember a car from my hometown ... somewhat infamous art car in the area. It was a pickup truck covered with a material that made it look like the whole truck was made from adobe. IIRC, it was ruined in an accident, so I can't find any images of it online.
posted by krinklyfig at 6:59 PM on April 10

NZ sculptor Jeff Thompson's 1974 Holden HQ station wagon covered in corrugated iron. Driven throughout New Zealand and Australia, currently on exhibit Te Papa Tongarewa museum, Wellington, New Zealand.
posted by Herodios at 7:10 PM on April 10

Fantastic. The Flickr photoset taken from inside the car is pure genius.
posted by fixedgear at 2:56 AM on April 11

There was a dude in New Haven twenty-thirty years ago who had a van completely covered with Astroturf -- some sort of artificial grass, anyway. It was the damndest thing you ever saw. I could never make up my mind if it was cool or idiotic, but it sure as hell was different. This isn't it, but it'll give you the idea.

Actually, I'm amazed that anyone else would do this!
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 7:49 AM on April 11

I've had the good fortune to see the yarncar at a few events where artcars gather. The technique is ingeniously simple: he coated the car with the stiff-loop side of velcro, and just pressed the yarn in. When a spot gets ragged, he rips it out and presses more in.
posted by adamrice at 2:28 PM on April 11