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Whether you’re an artist or just a scribbler, Sharpie markers are fun to doodle with. With all sorts of colors in the permanent marker brand at your disposal, you can transform a drab piece of paper, clothing, canvas, or yes, even a car, into a work of art. That’s exactly what one Olyphant, Pennsylvania man did, using the white body panels of his Cavalier to show off his artistic talents. Thanks to The Times-Tribune for bringing us the news.
While it may sound like a strange outlet for artistic expression, we’ve seen a few Sharpie wielding artists chose vehicles for their canvases. Earlier this year we reported on a Corvette that had seemingly been “tattooed” using a black Sharpie. While not everyone’s first choice for paint scheming, the design seemed adamantly planned and carried out. The Corvette wasn’t the only car we’ve seen sporting Sharpie designs, however. It wasn’t even a week ago that we brought you information on a fifth-generation Camaro receiving deck stripes solely with the popular writing utensil.
So what would possess someone to draw all over their car with a Sharpie? For the owner of the Cavalier, David Puerner, it was a mix between wanting to express his artistic abilities and sprucing up his car a bit. Puerner, a senior Visual Arts major at Keystone College and employee at The Times-Tribune, has admittedly always driven “beaters.” After Puerner started replacing rough red body panels on the car with white ones he found cheap, Puerner decided to paint the remainder of the car white as well.
But a plain white surface is just asking for something more, especially in the mind of an artist, so Puerner turned to the internet for artistic design ideas and was inspired by the Sharpie designs he discovered other artists had put on vehicles. Starting in mid-April, Puerner worked 2 to 4 hours a night on the designs. By mid-August when the car was complete, almost 200 hours of work had been put into the drawings on the Cavalier. “It’s holding up well, and I like the black and white. It’s nice and easy to keep up,” Mr. Puerner said.
While the designs my seem rather random on Puerner’s car, they are all significant to the artist. Whether it’s the henna-style design on the hood inspired by his girlfriend’s trip to India, pandas holding pistols reminiscent of English guerilla graffiti artist Banksy or the small designs of pop culture, Puerner’s designs all carry meaning.
As expected, Puerner’s car gets plenty of attention wherever he goes. While some individuals dislike the artistic expression, Puerner told The Times-Tribune that most the attention is praise for all the work he put into the graphics. Although the car is mostly a hit now, Puerner is looking for another car as he nears graduation from college. While he may not drive the Cavalier forever, he doesn’t plan on selling the car. Potentially, the body panels will be taken off the car and displayed in Puerner’s garage when he’s done driving the Cavalier.
It may not be a sports car or a classic Chevy, but we can respect all the effort and hard work Puerner put into creating his masterpiece. We can’t help but wonder if his next car will see a similar fate or if designing one car’s unique graphics will be the end of Puerner’s artistic expression on vehicles.
