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Author: Anthony Fontanelle

Article source: http://www.articledeshboard.com/. Used with author's permission.

Remember Volkswagen Microbus? If you do not, the VW Microbus that sort of thing which starred in the "Little Miss Sunshine" film. The ball-like machine is squeezed into a sphere six feet in diameter. If vehicles of today resemble the VW Microbus, who would need wheels?

The ball is a masterpiece of Lars-Eric Fisk of Burlington, Vt. and Fisk is an artist who specializes in sphere-shaped sculpture. Fisk's works are displayed in museums including the DeCordova Museum and the Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass., and the Dartmouth College museum.

In a catalog displayed at the DeCordova exhibition, Fisk called the sphere was a "simple, seamless form expressing movement and the concept of endlessness and timelessness without a beginning, without an ending." "Everyone gets it," the artist noted.

In 1999, Fisk completed the VW ball. "I don't know why, but the VW ball keeps surfacing every few years on the Internet," he said. The VW ball is now part of a private collection. Fisk, born in Vermont in 1970, has created other balls with various themes. The themes include a school bus, a green John Deere tractor, a drab brown U.P.S. truck and a white Mister Softee ice cream truck which comes all complete with lights.
"A U.P.S. guy saw the U.P.S. ball and stopped by the house of the owner," Fisk said. "He thought it was a package ready for shipping." The works of Fisk are equipped with windows and steering wheels. The artist is responsible for all the work using is skills on glass and metal fabrication. Fisk has previously sculptured a street ball, a sphere of asphalt made obvious by painted dotted lines. He has also created a barn ball with the wooden part painted red. The ball was used for the cover of "Round Room," a Phish album.

Fisk has pushed beyond the balls into new modes of sculpture. "The new theme for some reason seems to be garbage," he said. Among his recent masterpieces is a sculpture of a garbage can and another of a garbage bag. The sculpture is displayed at the Taxter & Spengemann Gallery in Manhattan.

Another artist with similar hobby is Corky Coker, the owner of Coker Tire. Coker has earlier unveiled a couple of photos of Gibbons' Bus Ball, a VW Microbus. The Bus Ball is dropped down to provide a single seat, melon-sized VW logo and a narrow-rimmed steering wheel. To improve the efficiency of the car it is given rotors that are as reliable as EBC brake rotors.