We ventured out of the lab today to check out the ArtCar Fest outside of the San Jose Museum of Art. We loved all the different construction techniques. Gluing, welding, riveting, painting, sewing – the list goes on. We took some pictures and put them in this set on flickr. Read on to see a few of our favorites.

Christian liked this truck with the larger-than-life fins. It had a great hood ornament, too – part eagle, part jet airplane. And it’s a Nash!

Windell was quite taken with the glass quilt car. Incredible mosaic work – and all those marbles!

Lenore was particularly charmed by this maneki neko.

What’s not to love about virtual fins?

This would not be complete without mention of the art car Prius. Jillian and Toast of Because We Can explained to us that a newer vehicle is a much better candidate for an art car because of the lower maintenance costs. Why put all that effort into creating something that you’re going to have to pour money into with every trip to the garage?

The picture above is particularly fitting since not only do we drive a Prius, but this part of the painting matches our experience quite well, as you can see from the Great Egret and Snowy Egret pics Windell took.

Maybe sometime we’ll make one of our own, but in the meantime, ArtCar Fest was totally inspirational fun.