My cousin Kari came in from Dallas to bring baby Zoe some hand-me-down goods.  While she was in town we also banged out an awesome 1 year portrait of Zach. 

Home boy was super giggly and fun to toss around.  We played for a while but had to throw down a little cool with the mix.  All this guy needs is a rum drink in a big plastic copilot mug at the ranch. 

After all the play time we gathered round the art car for a little Goode Co BBQ. 

 Whitney and James were sooooooo happy to see the Greenway boys.  We hope they decide to move to Houston soon.

 We love you guys,  thanks for everything! 

Posted by danny at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last week I took the wagon in to River Oaks Car Stereo to have a few things done to the Intergalactic Wagon.  The guys over there have been working on my cars since i was in high School. (That was back when Eddie ran his shop behind Randall's).

This time Doc and Eddie Jr. went nuts on the wagon.  Most of the old speakers were blown out so we had them updated. 

When I stopped by to see the car it was shocking to see my baby all undone like that.  It was like surgery. 

Now that the car has some better sounds we added a few other details like an alarm.  To set the car off like no other we also added a set of LED lights to give the intergalactic wagon that hover look at night. 

These lights are the baddest.  They can change to 7 different colors and about 200 different types of blinking patterns.  My kids just about wet themselves when they saw me rollin up with the undercarriage a glow.

 The guys over at River Oaks Car Stereo did a great job as usual. 

I don't think I would trust this fine piece of American automotive with any other group of guys.  Be sure and check them out at www.installer.com  They have plenty of toys you want and some you probably didn't know existed. 

Posted by danny at 10:43 PM | Permalink

Last week I decided that the wagon needed a little Texas style bling.  So I started to look for someone that could build us a custom hood ornament.  With a quick search, I came across Kent and Holly of Lucky Devil Metal Works.  

I sent them an email asking if they were able to build a hood ornament for our car.  Holly shot me back an email and was excited to hear about our project.  I could tell these guys were going to be great!  They wanted to build the ornament for us in memory of Tom Jones who was tragically killed by a drunk driver on May 11th of 2008.  Tom was an icon to the Art Car community and loved by many throughout Houston. 

Sunday afternoon my little man, James, and I headed out to the Lucky Devil Metal Works shop to work on the wagon.  When we arrived there was a photo shoot going on for one of the Houston Roller Derby teams.   There were a bunch of beautiful bikes, rough looking women in roller skates and lots of metal!  James and I were thoroughly impressed.

Once the shoot ended we pulled the wagon in and Kent started working on the car. 

Kent and I discussed the ornament we wanted and the size.  James wanted the ornament to be really big, but I convinced both James and Kent that a smaller size would be just fine. 

Since the wagon is officially the Intergalactic Lone Star Wagon, we presented the hood with an image of our great state of Texas.

Once that was decided on, Kent went to town on the metal.  It was really fun watching him work.  Personally, I had more fun watching my son James see this for the first time.  Kent was really patient with James (and myself) in answering all our questions and providing plenty of safety gear.

We watched the artist work his magic with grinders, torches and saws.

Kent was a master at his craft.  James and I were amazed to see how he could change the metals shape. 

Every step of the way Kent would go over what he was going to do.  You could tell he really loves what he does by the way he would take the time to show James how all the parts and tools worked.   Kent was showing James how he was going to bend the metal for the base of the hood ornament.  

James was mesmerized by the whole process and had the biggest smile on his face the whole afternoon.

He explained to James that the machine was really loud and you had to wear ear protection.  That was an entirely too complicated thing for James but he listened to Mr. Kent's direction and put on the ear protection.

While we were hanging out in the shop, James and I talked about all the different types of flames that were on the bikes, walls and cars at the shop.  James showed Mr. Kent the flames on the wagon and Kent decided to flame up the Texas Plate for us. 

After the plate was grinded down, he etched in flames on the raw metal. We decided to go with raw metal because it seemed to have a nice little Art Car feel.

This piece of art was beginning to get us all real excited about the new ornament!

After the etching was done, Kent finished it off with a burnished look.  It was just the thing to set this car off.  Nothing better than hot metal on the front of our crazy intergalactic wagon!

We installed the ornament and shut it down for the night.  Holly and Kent were the nicest people.  James poured on the charm with Mrs. Holly too.  She was so sweet to play kick ball with him, set him up with a movie, made him a sandwich and even let him hold their new little chickens.  It was a priceless afternoon that I am forever grateful.  

Kent and Holly of Lucky Devil Metal works are two top notch people.  They treated us like family and their love of Texas, art and friends shined through.   Thanks for doing this for us guys!  We are honored to carry a piece of art on the wagon in memory of Tom. 

God Bless Texas and God Bless your local Lucky Devil!

Posted by danny at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today is my grandfathers 86th birthday.  I think sometimes we forget that without the birth of one, many do not exist.  I wanted to take this opportunity to thank my grandfather for being here.  Without him I wouldn't have three of the coolest aunts, two of the baddest uncles, twelve of the funniest cousins, two great brothers, a great dad and three of the of the most beautiful children of my own. 

Thanks Daddy Clark.  Thanks for being my grandfather.  Thanks for being my friend and fan.  Thanks for being one of the toughest hombres I have ever known.  

I love you. 

And I will always just tell them who I am because of where I came from.

Danny

God Bless Texas and God Bless Daddy Clark.

Posted by danny at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last night at the Aerosol Warfare shop, Gonzo descended on the art car for its official makeover.  The night was a huge success with lots of excitement and spectators. 

First on the agenda was to mask off the car for painting.  Earlier in the day I removed a lot of the chrome and preped the paint for painting.  Once the car arrived we started masking everything off.  The wind was not helpful either.

After the car was ready Gonzo had to get his game face on.  That's not gatorade either.

Before any paint hit the car Gonzo did a little Roberts Elementary marketing.  The raffle tickets were officially on sale!

Before any craziness was to really get down Gonzo had to get rid of that brown. 

Once the brown was gone it was time to get intimate with the car.  There was no stopping the creative flow at this point.

The toy box of colors came out.  Not even Gonzo knew what was going to happen. 

As time went by you would notice the car taking on a stellar intergalactic look.  The car was poppin and looked happy.

Due to the wind Gonzo had to work on one side at a time.  Gonzo put the final touches on the passenger side and then we got the car turned around for the driver side.

The Wagon was evolving into something more.  Maybe it was the international space station that was flying over head.  There was definitely a funky, spacey feel to the area.

One of the spectators came up to Gonzo with a couple of decks for him to sign.  In the ever spirit of Gonzo he managed to take it a step further and completely blow the decks up with color.

At last the Wagon was complete.  We stripped the paper off the windows, sat back and reveled in the flow. 

It was an exciting night for everyone.  The show was fabulous.  The art was creative and the party was a lot of fun. 

This morning my kids ran outside to check out the wagon.  My son said it was the coolest car EVER.  He asked why it didn't have flames on it.  I told him that if a spaceship had flames they would look like that.   

Thanks for rockin the wagon Gonzo, we enjoyed every spray of the can!

Posted by danny at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

You see that sweet little boy?  Well he is the newest addition to the Weber crew.  David came aboard a couple weeks ago and joined us in the studio for his first photo shoot with mommy.  Little does he know that his three older brothers are anxiously waiting for him to be able to play.   

Before David was born we had the family in for a maternity portrait.  I love big families that like to have fun together and the Webers we not short on fun.  Mommy wanted a sweet photo of her little men all together.  That was easy, what was easier was getting them all wound up being gross.

Congratulations guys and thanks for having fun with us in the studio!

Posted by danny at 06:23 AM | Permalink

Last week we brought Zoe by the studio to take a few portraits of her.  She is a real easy going kid but was not real fond of the cold studio.  We did manage to capture a few images though.

I am always intrigued to see how the set of a shoot looks and the results.  For all those that are curiouse about the behind the scene of one of these types of shoots here is a little sample. 

We never got her to fully fall asleep but I think this is my favorite image.  She is always squeaking and moving about.  Denise and I can tell she is going to be a real pistol.

Have a great week everyone!

Posted by danny at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)