One day a friend said to me; “Hey you should teach a class on how to build an art-car!” Looking back now it makes perfect sense, but at the time it was the stupidest, craziest, wackiest idea i think I’d ever heard. So I did it.
I submitted a proposal for a class and honestly I thought they would turn me down. But The Crucible in West Oakland is not like other schools; they teach industrial arts such as welding and ceramincs, fire-performance, bicycle repair, sewing, jewlery and electronics.
Next thing I knew I was showing people who were my age or older how to build one of the most foolish things I could ever recommend: get the beefiest, heaviest vehicle you can find, strip it to the rails and build whatever the hell you want on it. If it only goes 5 mph and lasts for two weeks, you’re stoked.
The Runamock Fishvan has been going strong for nine years.
I wish I could take full credit for this thing, but honestly, I just taught the class. Sure I did a lot of work in the actual construction, the students took the fish by the gills, as it were, and went off the deep end.
I gave them all the best advice I could find, and despite only building one art-car previously, I was somehow the right one for the job. Let me get out of the way and shine on some of the crew: Jack Brady, Mark Sippola, Aaron Lander, TR Lingley and dozen others helped to birth and keep the Fishvan alive.
