Art cars are beautiful thingsbut daily life on the streets is often hard for them. During my travels through the scrapyard I have found many art cars that were swept away by a harsh world that did not value them enough, including the Groovalicious Purple Princess of Peace TaurusA Volvo 240 as a tribute to Van Gogh and the BibleA famous 1969 Ford Mustanga lot of hot glue masterpieces And some adventures in creative metalworking. Then there are the creatively decorated travel vans; today’s Junkyard Gem combines both types into one glorious Econoline, found in a garden in the Denver area last winter.
This bus was a serious piece of 21st century Denver art history, but was left at the cold steel jaws of the breaker months ago.
It started its life at Lorain Assembly in Ohio, as a regular ¾-ton van.
Then it became a canvas for Akiala IA multidisciplinary artist who has worked on fight against gentrification from Denver Five Points Neighborhood while I was starting art companies called Absoulute Vibe and Vibe Palace. As far as I can tell, the Vibe Palace bus is named after a spaceship from the planet Ultima in a galaxy “somewhere far away,” and it transported Mrs. I to New Orleans and back to Denver at least once.
There is plenty of science fiction-fused New Age spirituality art to be found throughout the Vibe Palace Econoline.
The letters on the right are beautifully three-dimensional and I’m amazed they stayed in place during all that driving across the country.
Good advice!
Inside you will find lots of pink, purple and disco ball-like fabric.
The engine is a 5.8-liter small-block pushrod V8, formerly known as the 351 Windsor. 1989 was the last year that American Econolines were available with a manual transmission, so this bus has an automatic.
This generation of Econoline was built from the 1975 through 1991 model years, so this bus is one of the last examples of the angular “long snout” Econoline family.
The people can still triumphbut this spaceship is no longer traveling through the Milky Way.
In the meantime, enjoy a five-dimensional energy training!
In 1976 even Merton Grundy entered a new dimension in are Econoline.