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Dickens44 and Girlfriend with Bascom Art Car

This mosaic Ford Falcon art car was created by artist and former curator for the Unknown Museum Dickens 44 Bascom on facebook a mystery worth investigating.

At first all I found was that Bascom 44 was born on the 44th day of 1944 at 44 minutes past 4:00 am. I am guessing that's were the "44" part of his name came from.

With the help of my friend Amanda who did some more digging I found out that he was part of a growing movement called the "gluers" spearheaded by a group called the Moligator Manufacturing Company, the Northern Frog Works. They met and exchanged gluable materials like costume jewelry, rubber mice, teeth, baby heads, tennis balls, bottle caps, plastic salt shakers and beyond. Dickens Bascom, a noted northern California gluer, looked forward to the day when he could join other gluers and purchase a large office building and decorate it in their fashion. "I'm determined to do it," he says. "I think it's something people need."

Larry Fuente who knew him said he was always raiding people’s basements for ‘art supplies’ and hanging stained glass windows from their trees, engaging neighbors in making art and “an expert at getting people, whole families, to do art together.”

Dickens 44 is still painting and gluing objects after all these years and has managed to produce a very large and wonderful body of art found on his site. The art car itself is pretty amazing and deserves its place here on art car central. Mystery somewhat solved.