Hot Rod art market?

A few days ago I was helping a friend shoot a hot rod themed movie. I was hanging around because they were borrowing stuff from the "sacred parts piles" in and around my studio. You know the sheet metal and odd mechanical parts that every car freak has and plans to turn into a car "someday". The actors had to know how to look like they were working on my parts and actually knew how to use tools. That was a all show no go situation. Oye.

Anyhow, a lot of folks brought cars and we were trying to find shade and stay out of the shoots and the heat in a place we could chat. I mentioned that it was really strange Street Rodder was getting harder to find, and there seemed to be like 12 new Rat Rod magazines, but they all featured the same cars over and over and over again, and a couple hundred T shirt companies each, very odd, especially since it seemed there were a lot of us middle aged guys still building cars, but not really many new Rat Rods being built. Most of these Rat Rod Magazines had hardly any tech articles either, again very odd. One of the guys piped up

" Oh its not really about the cars, these are LIFESTYLE magazines for young kids running hopped up Honda's. They are wanna be's who wish they could have our old iron, but they don''t have enough money so they never will." He said with considerable condecention. "We old guys are the last real; hot rodders." as he said that, I thought Hey asshole, I used to be that too young kid running a British Sports car, and it took some time but I got the stuff, man. I'm in the middle of building a very esoteric 1912 Ford Speedster of all ancient early California made speed equipment, and a really radical 1940 ford truck project. I got iron, baby!

Then another said "Yeah the diferential in incomes is killing the Hot Rod Art market. I figured there would be this HUGE demand based on the magazine sales, so I bought all this stuff at the Von Dutch auction a couple years age, but now its so expensive none of the kids can buy it, so prices are less than half what they were. It was a bad investment"

Huh? Von Dutch stuff an investment? LOL!! I met Dutch a few times over at Joe Runyan's garage back when I was a kid. Dutch would have just loved the idea of some swell "investing" in his stuff and losing his shirt. LOL. Not because he was cruel, not because he hated rich guys per say, but because his stuff was ART, you moron, not an "investment".

Art you see is something made for the pleasure of the maker and the client. While the artist needs money, it ain't about the money dude, it's about the pleasure the STUFF brings YOU because it touches something inside you. The art is seen within you, sometimes for ages, and then comes forward out of you. Von Dutch investment market? LOL LOL LOL !!!

Myself, I'd love to get some of Dutch's work, not because I'd ever sell it (what are ya kiddin me?) but because I'd like to look at it, fondle it, drool on it and use it, since most of Dutch's "art" was really functional craft. (and if you dont know the difference, you shouldn't be investing in art ,dufus)

But Hot Rod parts and art are made for runnin, not investing, the stuff ain't for that. If you want a investment call your broker. He'll give you some really ugly paper that no one can enjoy with lots of teensie little gray print on it, and if everything works out OK, and usually it doesn't, the profit off that ugly paper can get you some ART. Your soul needs ART not your portfolio. Your portfolio exists to get you stuff like ART. Art does not exist to be part of your portfolio, and if you don't get that, the Art is lost on you, and you should leave it be for someone who gets it. Toad. I hope the "Hot Rod Art Market" keeps dropping so this guy will sell me a couple small Von Dutch tools that I can USE. Investment? Nope.