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Redneck Products'
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| Artist Joins the Art Car World Despite Her Physical Handicap |
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When she told some of her artist friends that she had switched from painting abstract
paintings to drawing cartoons for a living, they snickered, "That’s not real art." When she
described to some in Jacksonville, Florida’s art world the wonderful art cars she had seen
on the Internet, they scoffed and excused themselves politely from the conversation. When
she bought the 1979 Winnebago, the Jacksonville Beach City Counsel demanded she move the RV
immediately or be fined one hundred dollars per day. When she laid out the plans to put two
7 foot by 26 foot murals of her Redneck Cartoons on each side of her new acquisition, her
family said that it couldn’t be done especially by someone who has to use a wheelchair or a
cane to just be able to "get around."
Despite everyone’s reaction and city counsel breathing down the back of her "red" neck, she began her project with a couple hundred dollars for paint, a pencil to draw the 7 foot characters, and help from her husband Roger Allen, their business partner Mark Redlon, and a long-time friend Jacksonville comedian Dr. Cornpone, otherwise known as Bill Meyers. Now, you might first wonder about the handicap equipment needed for an art project this size. "It’s really quite simple," explains Fay. "I paint the lower half of the murals while sitting in my wheelchair. When I get to the midsection of the painting, I use a brush duct-taped to a piece of dowel. The artist chuckles at the mention of duct-tape in her project. "After all, this is a Redneck Limo!" When I do the top, which is out of my reach, my husband puts my wheelchair on an old office table we had in the garage, secures the chair to the table, and I sit several feet off the ground happily painting away." When asked about the "Redneck" aspect of her cartooning, Ms. Lienti-Allen explains. My cartoons are a collection of wacky characters that live in a place called "Redneck Holler." They carry on their daily lives in the holler to the "beat of a different drummer" without concern for what’s happening in the real world. My cartoons make no political or social statements. Or as Rodney Redneck, her main character puts it, "We was created just fer fun!" When asked what she sees as the future of The Redneck Limo, Fay explains that she and her husband are planning to tour throughout the U.S. entering it in parades, festivals, art car shows, and stopping at cartoon museums along the way. Not only has Ms. Lienti-Allen tackled two 26-foot murals, she has also produced a comic book featuring her Redneck Holler characters that she is planning to market at comic book conventions next year. The comic book series is called Adventures Down in the Holler or as she refers to it, "Down in the Holler." If you would like to see The Redneck Limo in progress, you can either scout the local store parking lots in Jacksonville where Fay pulls up and starts quickly painting to dodge the ever watchful eye of city counsel, or simply go to www.redneckproducts.com and look for The Redneck Limo link. "We have a photo gallery of its progress on there." |
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