Harrod Blank, a California native, grew up in the Bonny Doon Mountains of Santa Cruz, where he attended high school and college. In 1989, he relocated to Berkeley, where he currently resides part-time.
Initially, Blank believed he was the only individual in the world with an Art Car, which led him to feel somewhat isolated. However, he eventually discovered that there were other such vehicles, scattered across the country, and drew inspiration from his father, filmmaker Les Blank, and his BA in Theater Arts/Film from UC Santa Cruz in 1986.
Blank began photographing other Art Cars, raising money through private investors and taking out loans as needed to finance his 64-minute documentary, Wild Wheels (1992). The film, featuring 46 Art Cars and their respective artists, was initially distributed by driving "Oh My God!" to 50 cities across the country, gaining publicity and eventually being broadcast on PBS as a National Special in 1993.
The following year, Blank's photography was featured in a companion book, Wild Wheels (Pomegranate, 1994; Blank Books, 2001),which was named "Best Book for Young Adults" by the American Library Association.
Inspired by a dream, Blank attached 1,705 cameras to a 1972 Dodge van, cleverly hiding ten working cameras among the rest, allowing him to capture candid expressions of awe and delight. In 1995, he drove the "Camera Van" to New York City for its official "debut" and shot over 5,000 photographs for a photography exhibit, "I've Got A Vision".
In 1995, Blank began production of a feature-length sequel to Wild Wheels (1992),a short version of which (Driving the Dream (1998),29 minutes) was broadcast on TBS's National Geographic Explorer in October 1997 to help raise money for the epic feature-length film, Automorphosis (2009),which premiered January 2009 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Blank made his third Art Car in 1998, an interactive mariachi-themed music mobile called "Pico De Gallo", later unveiled in his book, Art Cars: the Cars, the Artists, the Obsession, the Craft (Lark Books, 2002).
