Why did the chicken cross the road?

To get to the other side? 

Nooooo, not this chicken!  This chicken DRIVES down the road.....because this 15 foot tall chicken is on the chassis of a 1988 Mazda truck...and goes anywhere he wants to.

This chicken is an Art Car...and Houston, city of this chicken's hatching, lays claim to hosting the world's oldest and largest Art Car parade.  The parade is a 4-day celebration that attracts 250+ vehicles and other entries from the US, Mexico and Canada, and has a live audience of some 250,000. The Art Car parade, a free public art event, is created by and for the people. There is no pre-selection process; anyone who makes a decorated, augmented, or decked-out wheeled vehicle can participate.

The 2010 Houston Art Car Parade will be held on May 8 with Dan Aykroyd hosting as Grand Marshall. Events include the Art Car Ball held Thursday nite; on Friday is the Main Street Drag (where caravans of art cars visit children's hospitals, schools, community centers, and senior living facilities); Friday nite is Sneak Peek and shop talk; Art Car parade held downtown on Saturday at 1 pm; and the Art Car Artists Award Ceremony on Sunday. If you have never experienced an art car parade, plan to come to this one or get yourself to the one nearest you!

I took my son to his first art car parade in 1989, the second year Houston hosted an Art Car parade sponsored by the Orange Show.  I guess it left an impression on him, but it took a good 12+ years before he and a friend created their first art car...named Laundry Car. He followed that with  2 art bikes (Horsie Bike and Automobike) and a coffee scooter (Smitty's Percolating Coffee Psycho). He evidently enjoyed the art of creating so much that he changed his major to art, and in 2009 graduated summa cum laude  from the University of Houston with a BFA in Studio Art - Sculpture. Drew is now teaching art to students in an area high school.

This big chicken was actually a project in one of Drew's sculpture classes.  Big chicky is made  of new and used corragated steel with the tail feathers being interior pieces from hot water heaters.  Entered in the 2008 Art Car Parade as Hen-a-tron II, this big chicken won the People's Choice Award out of  250 entries. Mom was proud.

Big chicky got some new feathers for the 2009 parade.  To see the big chicken in action in 2009, go to this  local news segment. The Psychedelic Surfer Dude 60's era Porsche shown in the segment was the big winner in the 2009 parade.

....Horsie bike

....coffee scooter

...Laundry car with the performing artists Lonely Maytag Man and Smuggles the Fabric Softener Bear

Drew's 1966 VW Variant is at the age where it needed a little help seeing just to drive around town...just an art project, not made for the parade.


As you can tell, this post is not about one of my old dollhouses....so I guess it falls under "other treasures".  But the other treasure is not this big chicken, the treasure is my son!