Las Vegas motorists have two more distractions on the Valley's roadways now, thanks to the Regional Transportation Commission's "Wrap It Transit" art contest.
Hot on the heels of similar programs featuring poetry and artwork inside CAT buses, the RTC—in cooperation with the Las Vegas Centennial Committee and Clark County Parks and Recreation—put out a call for artists last year to submit designs to be wrapped around the exterior of CAT buses.
The winners were announced and their designs unveiled at a ceremony/public relations stunt held at the South Strip Transfer Terminal last Thursday. Apparently, the South Strip terminal sees far less action than the Downtown Transportation Center, since nearly every person in the building was there for the event and not to transfer buses. Besides, it's unlikely the RTC would have wanted the riffraff noshing on the catered finger food provided for invited media, artists and jurors.
"Xeno-Morphosis" was the winning design of partners KD Matheson and Jorge Catoni. Anyone familiar with the work of either artist might be somewhat surprised that their submission would be chosen: Both tend to create challenging, esoteric, thought-provoking work, and sure enough, their bus design was an intricate mélange of black-and-white line art, part of a larger, 100-foot work the duo created.
Shan Michael Evans was the mastermind behind the other winning entry, "Astro Bus: the Millennial Edition." He decided to take the RTC's theme of Las Vegas past, present and future to one cartoonish extreme.
"I decided on the future, 1,000 years from now," Evans said. "A thousand years seems a far time off, but we can go there by sharing in the hope of what's to come."
The childlike Evans, 30, has become well known for his TragicMagicHead line of plush toy art and his bold, colorful prints and paintings that feature robots, monsters and dream-like landscapes. For him, the bright red design for "Astro Bus" means much more than increased visibility of his art.
"I hope that when we see the bus we think of the future and that thought will takes us out to space and out into forever and that thought brings us right back to the here and now, to appreciate the time we do have," said Evans.
Of course, he also recognizes a more down-to-earth purpose:
"I thought it would be fun to ride around in a spaceship!"