by Emily Crawford

Created on: July 06, 2008

Quite possibly the most creative use for dirt is the one mastered by San Marcos, Texas resident Scott Wade. During the course of Wade's day-to-day travels, a considerable amount of dirt accumulates on the windows of his car. A condition most everyone cures with a simple application of soap and water has become a wildly successful business venture for Wade. He's the "Dirty Car Artist."

Every day, Wade drives up and down the mile-and-a-half dirt road to and from work and home. According to his web site (www.dirtycarart.com), the caliche road base (named by the locals) is a blend of limestone dust, gravel, and clay. When any vehicle drives over the surface moving "faster than a galloping turtle," a fine white dust billows up behind the vehicle and coats its rear window.

It takes about 10 days to two weeks for the "perfect dirt" (MAKE Magazine, Volume 14) that deposits on the windows of Wade's Mini Cooper and his wife's Mazda to build enough coverage to create the natural canvas Wade needs. He then uses paint brushes and other painter's tools to remove different amounts of dust and design his works of art on car windows. Over the years, Wade has experimented with different techniques to perfect his amazingly detailed shaded drawings. Today, each design takes about an hour to paint.

It sounds bizarre, right? Wade, himself, admits people have questioned his sanity (CBS Early Show, August 16, 1007). But for anyone who sees the masterpieces he creates, the oddity of the art form quickly takes a back seat (perhaps in the Hummer on which he "painted" portraits of Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and George Washington Carver, among others, at the National Biodiesel Board Conference) to the wow factor.

What began as a pastime for Wade, an escape from the stress of his job as a graphic designer, has delivered international attention and recognition as well as some pay dirt. Wade has been approached by sponsors, such as Armor All, and various advertisers. He also makes regular appearances at automobile shows, other corporate events, and colleges.

While Wade prefers to allow each canvas a natural birth, sometimes the weather throws up road blocks. When faced with the need to create new designs more rapidly, Wade rubs the cars' back windows with almond oil and blows dirt onto them from a tray using a hair dryer ("Dust to Art," American Profile, April 20, 2008). In his interview with the CBS Early Show in August 2007, Wade explained that it took a decent amount of trial and error to identify the right oil for the job.

Wade confesses to drawing on dirty window his whole life. However, he didn't always take the art form seriously. As he gnawed on a Popsicle stick one day in 2003, Wade contemplated what would happen if he brushed the splintered edge across the dusty car window. When he did, he was astonished by the result and decided to employ traditional paintbrushes to achieve a higher level of detail ("Dust to Art," American Profile, April 20, 2008).

A gallery of photos can be browsed on Wade's web site, www.dirtycarart.com - it includes pictures taken from both inside and outside the cars, original designs as well as replicas of the Mona Lisa and C.M. Coolidge's "A Friend In Need," among others.

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