Last year a good friend talked me into collaborating on an art car. I had some reservations about blowing that much money on something so fleeting. But we went with it. The idea started in January. In March, we harvested the bamboo necessary to build our art piece. On June 3rd, construction started.

We spent every single weekend from then until Aug 20th working on it. Consequently, I took a summer off from my job. I spent my time surfing and working on the car. About three times a week on my own. Once we got into crunch time (August) I spent EVERY SINGLE DAY piecing things together for two weeks. Once I was burned out, my partner in crime took over. Ultimately, we spent a few thousand dollars putting it together. Transporting it set us back another two. We put in hundreds of man hours for a vehicle that, in my opinion, wasn’t all that big.

I’d be lying if I said it was easy. But once we took our creation out to Burning Man, it was clear that it was worth every single bit of time, money, and effort we put into it. We were filmed and interviewed for a network TV spot. Every single day we were innundated with compliments and praise. We even took a bride, who I’d never met until 30 minutes before, and her entire party out to her wedding at the Temple. But most importantly, we had a ton of fun, met some really great people, and I really felt like I had done something to improve the community.

The capper was seeing our work appear in the Burning Man Gallery. We managed to fit 18 people on to that thing (the second level was a passenger carrier and beverage bar). With some vision and a whole lot of determination, we transformed a totalled Saturn Wagon into a surreal bamboo lionfish.

I had a blast doing it. I highly recommend the experience! I want to do another. In fact, my partner in crime and I are planning even bigger and better things. Deciding to make an art car was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time.