Kelly Israel's Art Cars & Art House

I've mentioned Kelly and his art cars before, here. Alas, he doesn't have a web site. But he does the coolest art cars AND he's doing his whole house. We talked for a long time this summer in New Orleans, standing out on Decatur Street, admiring his new old hearse, which is his next project. Along with his house. Which wasn't in the street with us, but he told me about it, OK? So I sent him a bag of acrylic rhinestones I found at an estate sale, for him to use somewhere, and last week I got two CD's in the mail--one of them is full of images of his work. Here are a few of them:

The front of his house. He's doing mosaic all over it. Isn't it FABULOUS? Don't you wish you could see it In Real Life? I do.

If you love mosaic, you've got to check out Lauri Mika's new book. Cool! She sent me a copy that arrived this week, and I can't wait to read it--the photos are lovely and enough to make this fabric artist want to try something completely new. One of these days. . . .

Anyway, so here're a couple of Kelly's vehicles in various stages of alteration.

And here's the hearse. The back window is fabulous--he's inset slices of geodes, and when you look at it from the inside, with the light shining through, they're gorgeous.

Well, maybe a little creepy if you're someone who gets spooked about sitting in the back of a hearse. . . .

Man, he does nice work.