Grand Arts: The Scrambler airbrush
One of our very first memories involves a Gravitron, a wad of chewing gum and a very unhappy seat mate with long, flowing blonde locks - thus began our love/hate affair with shoddy county fairs and carnie culture. So when we came across recent work produced by the Grand Arts, a non-profit art space/studio in Kansas City, all those funnel-cake-eating, Zipper-riding memories started flooding back. An artist at Grand Arts created the Good-Time Mix Machine Scrambler Drawings that uses the trusty ol' Scrambler, which they say was one of the first non-wheel rides in the 50's, then-named the "grass-cutter", to airbrush a massive canvas. The artist attached a gas-powered spray mechanism to the passenger seat of one car, which is connected to a bucket of paint that rests on the car floor. When the cars are in motion the artist uses a remote control to control the spray on the canvas and creates the geometric scrambler drawing—sort of like a giant spirograph. The artist has also used classic pinball machines to create pinball motion drawings, and the idea behind marking the paths of rides/machines is kind of infectious — we started to wonder what else we could slap some paint on and stick a canvas under? The Grand Arts studio might be one of the few reasons anyone should visit Kansas City, but since we'll probably never get there ourselves, we'll be thinking of the hidden airbrush opportunities during our next county fair visit.
