HOOP: the King of Art

Hoop has done two self portrait vehicles.

• Hoop began designing art cars in 1985, and often uses small foreign cars such as the Fiat 850, the Italian Isetta, the Volkswagen Beetle (the old kind) and small 3 wheel cart vehicles.

• Hoop often covers his vehicles with what is called fun fur. Since it comes in many bright colors, it is well suited to his type of art. Hoop has created time machines, space traveling vehicles, vehicles devoted to luck, and even a vehicle that is a self portrait.

• Hoop created the King of Art (and the requisite costume and crown) after appearing on some tv shows such as Richard Bey. It gave him a persona which made him stand out from other artists.

• Hoop is an artist by nature, producing not just art cars, but paintings, drawings and conceptual art as well. Hoop grew up surrounded by the Andy Warhol crowd that were part of the scene in east Village, and you wouldn't need him to tell you that to know it. Everything about Hoop screams "artist" from his appearance and clothes, to his manner of speech and the way he carries himself. 

• Car & Driver has sponsored a wild car contest, and Hoop has won two of the top 10 awards. Why are art cars so popular? Says Hoop, "Take an art car, park it next to a Ferrari, and it'll get more attention."

• The latest project he;s been involved in is a follow-up to Harrod Blank's 1992 documentary. Blank released a second book called Art Cars: The Cars, the Artists, the Obsession, the Craft. Said Blank, "At first people would have thought I was nuts. People would have thought Hoop was nuts. Now 20 years later, he's a superstar in the art car world."

• Hoop has a collection of celebrity fingerprints, which is exactly what it sounds like. He would attend parties in the city and if he saw a celebrity he would ask them for their fingerprint. It's amazing how may of them would comply.

• In his collection of celebrity fingerprints are such people as the Amazing Kreskin, Captain Kangaroo, George Plimpton, Curtis Sliwa, Michael Anderson (the dwarf from twin peaks) Uncle Floyd, Tiny Tim, Bill Boggs, Allan Ginsberg, Cousin Brucey, Al Lewis, Joe Frazier, and the original  Kramer, Kenny Kramer

When I asked Hoop to pose with his cars, he donned his Hi-Tek Hoop hat and a gold colored jacket. He then said, "I don't feel like gold today, I feel like silver..." He grabbed a can of silver spray paint, and spray painted the jacket silver, and after it dried, he posed for the pictures...

Hoop dismantled this double ended van a few months before I met with him, but in this picture you can see the design is two van fronts married together, a rather Monster Garage type feat if you ask me. He told me that it always turned heads, and on numerous times he was stopped by the police, who would invariably go to the rear of the vehicle and then wonder where the driver was....This happened a few times in Montclair, but after the second time it was usually to have the officers picture taken with this most unusual vehicle. Much like the police of Long Beach are all familiar with Jessie James, I am sure most of Montclair is familiar with their resident art car artist.

Hoop is a big fan of public art, and stated that many times he would drive into the city in one of his unusual cars specifically for the purpose of leaving it parked on the street overnight so people could look at it and marvel. He would often leave the Good Luck truck complete with wishing well, and would find money throw into it. He eventually put a pad of paper and pen next to it, and sure enough he would find that people had written their wish down and throw the paper (and some  money) into the wishing well.

Hoop entered the time machine into the weird car contest at the Lead East 50's car show and came in second.

Hoops notoriety in this area of art caught the attention of Mattel, maker of Hot Wheels contacted Hoop about creating an art car related to their new series of toy cars" city heroes" Originally they wanted a design based around a taxi cab but Hoop immediately squashed that idea. "Fireman and police officers are heroes, not taxi drivers."  Hoop mulled over the design and finally settled on a meter maid car which he decorated with over 1500 matchbox cars and other car related toys and items. Mattel wanted the car in time for a toy show at the Javitz center. It was debated what would happen to the vehicle after the show but Hoop convinced them to let him keep it, and that he would display it at various art shows or art car events.
 

NON ART CAR ART

Hoop doesn't just make art, he collects it too. One part of his collection is a series of works by Jack Kevorkian, AKA Dr Death, or the Suicide doctor. The paintings are, as to be expected, rather macabre but extremely moving. Me thinks Mr Kevorkian has issues with authority figures, be it the church or the state....

A JACK KEVORKIAN ORIGINAL

Email from Nathan:

 I've got one for the Art Cars section. This interesting vehicle is in the Paterson Museum...

Email from Todd:

My co-worker was just talking about the new CAR AND DRIVER 10-best issue. I told him about the time (about 20 years ago) that I had a photo in CAR AND DRIVER'S "10 best Wild Things" competition. It was a BMW Isetta, painted funky colors, with black FUR trim, driven by a hippie-looking guy, and had the NJ license plate "HOOP". I saw it on Rt. 3 somewhere.  Nutley maybe.  I'm from Glen Ridge. Anyway, I googled "Isetta HOOP" and was amazed/delighted to find your site.