Getting the bug: WCHS art students paint VW Beetle in ‘60s style
No car exemplified the ’60s counterculture more than the Volkswagen Beetle.
Now art students at Waynesburg Central High School are turning the iconic vehicle into a canvas for an even bigger tribute to the era, creating a mural that will be displayed publicly in downtown Waynesburg.
The Bug and the idea came from Waynesburg business owner Farley Toothman, who’d see street art and locally-themed murals in his travels and wonder why Waynesburg didn’t have anything similar to liven up some of the parking lots or downtrodden alleys.
When he found a shell of a vintage Volkswagen sliced lengthwise on Facebook Marketplace one day, he thought, “Well, there’s a place to start.”
The mount where the car will go now sits on the wall of his garage on Morgan Street, across the street from Farley’s Hotel Cafe.
He put out the call on his Facebook page for local artists who could paint the car in the hippie style, with some timely references to America’s sesquicentennial thrown in.
“I can be the conductor of the symphony, but I’m not an artist,” he said. “…When I saw the Volkswagen Beetle, I thought, well, that speaks to a fun generation, and a lot of people can relate to it.”
Four or five artists responded. The one that most intrigued him was the proposal from WCHS art teacher Joe Kuhns.
“We’ve done murals in the school and mosaics, so it’s nice to get them together in a group to work on something,” he said. “I’m willing to bet most of them will get a selfie in front of it when we put it up in town.”
Camryn Hawfield, a 12th-grade student, called it “amazing” for students to leave their mark on the borough.
“Especially for me, since it’s my senior year, this is really cool for one last thing that I get to do, and we’re very grateful that we get to work on it,” she said.
They started with what Kuhns deemed the hardest part: a tie-dye base that was achieved with trial and error using spray paint.
To that base, students have added peace signs, bell-bottoms, daisies and other visual signifiers from the Age of Aquarius. Students bring their suggestions to Kuhn, who tells them to find an open spot.
“The nice thing about the hippie art is you don’t have any rules to it,” Kuhns said. “Just find a space and fill in it with something you think goes there.”
They’ll start with a stencil to make the basic shape in white, then fill it in.
The Beetle can be a busy location during the final period of the day, with students moving in and out of the space to add details.
“It kind of gets tight sometimes, but for the most part, it’s gone really smoothly,” Kuhns said.
Students scoured Pinterest and other sites for inspiration, as well as images from the era Kuhns brought in.
From there, they put their own spin on it.
Hawfield’s contributed a sun, snail, mushrooms and part of a multi-colored chameleon. She also worked on another crucial part of the ’60s scene: a vinyl record.
“I think it looks really nice,” she said. “Very, very hippie. I think we’ve met the brief.”
It all looks “beautiful,” said Toothman, who’s been following the progress on social media.
Toothman also has the wheels of the Beetle for students to paint. His hope is that once the Beetle is mounted on the wall, students can also paint a mural on the wall with images representing the area — “the rolling hills of Greene County and covered bridges and Waynesburg.”
“I just hope it puts a smile on somebody’s face,” he said.
Toothman’s already mounted a metal frame on the side of the garage for the car, pending a zoning permit from the borough.
“I can’t imagine that the zoning board and the public aren’t interested in uplifting with art some of our darker corners, which is what I’ve always been trying to do, and there are a lot of those in the borough that I think would be great places for additional art,” he said.
And once that’s done, he’s got another project where another local artist can display their talents: the other half of the Beetle.