Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

Remember the Cat Car?

It was painted to promote the AMPLIFY project, but quickly dubbed ‘The Cat Car’ – the original artists were Kai Devenitch, Sam Thorpe, and Jason Sauer. The following year, Kai and Jason updated the paint job.

This 2000 Honda CRV was a beauty – a cassette deck, for example. I bought it because of the tailgate being able to hold my two dogs comfortably. But i bought it used in 2005. It ran pretty well for many years until it didn’t. So I parked it on our parking pad and tried to figure out what to do with it. It was visible from Chateau so many people told me they saw it sitting there amidst a pretty bleak landscape.

It was art, the best work of art I ever owned. Created by my friends to lift up the LGBTQIA+ community. Fun and beautiful and so predictive.

We finally had an outcome that seems perfect – Kai approached me about converting the Cat Car into a demolition derby art car. That he would drive.

Yesterday, Kai and Jason came over to pick it up and drive it away to be stripped down for the derby later this month. I was a little sad, but also kind of excited that the car will be morphing into yet another identify – from regular car to art car to derby car – before ending up in a scrap yard. I’m not sure if art car to derby car is upcycling or downcycling, but it definitely is a hell of a way to go.

Jason promised me that he will return the hood to me as a sculpture for our backyard. The hood has a giant cat painted by Kai. That’s pretty cool, too.

I’d love to have another art car to promote #PghCatLadies work, but I don’t think anyone is going to give me a viable vehicle for free to haul cat supplies around.

Well, Cat Car, it has been a hell of a 21 year run. You’ve done a lot of good work and given me lots of stories to share.

You can catch Kai, Jason, and other former art cars in the 2021 Iron City Nationals on Saturday, September 18, 2021 in New Alexandria. I’ll update the progress on the transformation on the Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents Facebook page.