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Ingredients: dual-tank veggie oil bus currently owned by Leah of the amazing musical act Rising Appalachia, a specialized mechanic to train me, solar panels & installation, artists, musicians, filmmakers, photographers, poets, dreams.
Recipe & Prep: I want to learn the ins-and-outs of running a vegetable oil converted bus, install solar panels for power when not driving, and in the first year I want to reach at least half of the 27 states I am yet to spend time in.
Result: Traveling alternative energy art(side)show: rotating members: creating, performing, presenting, and donating artwork in each community visited with a minimum stop of 8 weeks. The bus: alternative energy & lifestyle live/work/travel space which will reach & inspire countless people.
Help make my dream a reality.
Scroll all the way down for Bus Details!!! ...Not only is it environmentally sound, but it is also cost effective as a large portion of veggie oil fuel is free.
The Story
In the past, I would travel and return to where I was living and make something I was inspired to make on the journey, rarely being able to return to the community and give back to the place and the people who inspired it. In the last year, I tried something new: moving to a new place every 8-12 weeks, doing presentations on longstanding projects and working on new ones in each location, becoming a temporary yet active and perpetuating member of a community. The year has been comprised of traveling on foot, bike, airplane, and car. Although in the last year I have met many fantastic people, had wild adventures, made amazing things I have been able to share with small communities and the world at large, it’s still not as sustainable or practical of a methodology as I want to employ - which is where the bus comes into play. I dream of carrying less and making and giving more…and doing it all without compromising my or anyone else’s ideals.
I am a Ukrainian-born traveling transmedia artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. My work is consistently exhibited, published, traded, posted online, and presented to diverse international audiences.
My creative endeavors include painting, public and street art, screenprinting, film & video, installation, writing, performance, curating and organizing exhibitions in mobile art spaces, design, documenting ancient traditions, and the list goes on...
My inspiration stems from my indubitable fascination with culture. I travel extensively and create socially relevant work as I go, involving local communities, as well as fellow transients.
Much of my family and film team live in Chicago, where I also
have a storage unit; I come to Chicago between locations to share the
results - physical, metaphysical, as well as in the form of stories from my creative journeys - and also to unload, rearrange, and reload what I carry. Traveling on the bus will cut this step out of my journeys, allowing me to travel with a full load of belongings and supplies, providing longer uninterrupted creative journeys.
An Example: Recent Trip
Most recently I went to New Orleans as I was invited to
first have my paintings in an exhibition with one of my heroes and then I was asked to
direct said gallery. My time at the gallery ended early, which led to connecting with
the New Orleans Community Print Shop, by happenstance, where I began a screenprinting project - having not touched a screen in ten years - and volunteered to run an art
sale, too! In the meantime, I also worked with the Zeitgeist
Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center and their Fifth Annual New Orleans Middle East
Film Festival where I helped make connections for food donations and
advertising, exhibited some of my paintings, and part of my film team, On Look Films, drove in to do a
project presentation as part of the Film Festival! Also - no I don’t ever
sleep - I volunteered as a videographer for the last set of performances
held at The Music Box, A Shantytown Sound Laboratory - a collaboration between street artist Swoon, Delaney Martin, Theo Eliezer, Quintron, Jay Pennington, and many other
creative magical individuals!
I just get involved everywhere I go….because I get inspired everywhere I go!!!
I long to have a sustainable live/work/travel situation - and - this is it! All materials and art making will happen on and out of the bus, I will sleep on the bus, eat on the bus, travel on the bus! It is perfect to live in as I travel the whole continent!
Transforming the world by recycling waste oil from restaurants, making art everywhere I go, giving to each community I meet!
The Impact
I will be documenting via video, audio, photo, drawings and written word all aspects of the project:
- My training sessions with the mechanic as I learn the magic of a dual tank system
- The learning, followed by the actual installing of solar panels on the bus
- Fueling stations & interactions between myself and the restaurants & people who donate their waste oil which is my fuel
- Road trips & travel partners and our adventures and misadventures
- Community & personal projects I become part of and initiate
- Living off the grid and using alternative energy instead of fossil fuels & the world's non-renewable resources - reducing our carbon footprint one town at a time!
- I plan to donate all of what I document to educational institutions with a focus on alternative energy and/or alternative lifestyle for use in their programs as feasible contemporary examples, showing how someone with no prior knowledge, skill, or predisposition to alternative energy can be easily trained and live in a sustainable manner + be enabled to follow their dreams.
- Through a live presence in each community I visit and through a strong internet presence, I hope to inspire individuals like myself to personally take on the alternative energy challenge.
- A cross-pollination of ideas, materials & tools, creative collaborations, the fruits of these collaborations will be a consistent way to measure impact as small projects in individual communities turn into one large cross-continent project.
Breaking it down: What I Need & What You Get
$5,000 - Buys the bus!
$2,000 - Gets me time with the mechanic who has worked on the bus for the last few years and will teach me everything they know!
$1,000 - Gets me started on purchasing solar panels and learning how to install them! (If you have solar panels you are willing to donate or are willing to teach me how to install solar panels, please get in touch)
If more than $8,000 is raised - the remainder will go towards the rest needed for solar panel installation and training and into a fund for any necessary future repairs.
If less than $8,000 is raised - I will begin another campaign to raise the rest of the necessary funds.
If at least $5,000 is raised - I can buy the bus, pick it up, meet the mechanic and do a couple different fundraising campaigns - one on the ground and one here at indiegogo to finish raising the necessary funds!
There is a myriad of ways I want to GIVE BACK for your support and belief in this DREAM of mine!
The top prize is a road trip with me in the veggie oil gypsy mobile! I will pick you up wherever you happen to be (on a date we mutually agree on) and we will travel to anywhere you want to go!
There are so many other really great rewards! Including photographs, videograms, recordings of training sessions with the mechanic, limited edition screenprints created by yours truly and by the girls of Rising Appalachia - who currently own the bus! Check the perks area to find out what other cool stuff is in store when you support Anna and the Bus!
Other Ways You Can Help *
Make some noise & get involved!
Get the buzz out about Anna and the Bus by telling your friends and family, sharing through Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and any other creative means online and in person! If you belong to any creative or alternative energy collectives or organizations, please make your org aware of these efforts! Spread this seed; these efforts are how we can transform the world from the inside out!
This is my dream and I can't wait to share it with you and the world - starting with this continent! Get in touch and let me know where you live - I'll stop by and we can make something together!
This is as much about learning and creating as it is about being an active part of the transformation into the new alternative energy and alternative economy landscape
*If you - or someone you know - have solar panels you are willing to donate, please send me a message at anna.kipervaser@gmail.com. If you have other ideas to contribute, do not hesitate to get in touch!
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Bus Details from Leah (the girl who owns the bus)
First of all this is a dual tank system.
That means first off the bus can run off regular any diesel fuel.
In addition it means that there is a SECOND tank built into the bus that can filter recycled waste oil from restaurants and run directly from that.
It is kinda like driving an old space ship.
(It has also been custom painted and stenciled, (red and gold interior like a proper pirate wagon) and full of powerful parts of a 5 years touring folk music project..
It's got 193,000 miles on it
Our music project, was able to tour over 12,000 miles in this bus across the country using 75% recycled fuel.
Not only is it environmentally sound, but it is also cost effective as a large portion of veggie oil fuel is free.
Secondly the body of the bus is a 1993 Ford Econoline Bus. It looks like a church van in the front, with an additional extension added to the roof like a small school bus. The interior seats 4 comfortably and has sleeping options, lockable storage, seat-belts, a killer sound system, ect.
We would love to see the right family/community/non-profit/ ect take on this project, someone with mechanical skills and time to love and grease up this well oiled machine would be best. It needs someone with time and patience, willing and ready for a fun dynamic project…and ready for the ins and outs of alternative fuel.
Team on This Campaign:
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AnnaAnna
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Scott F. BuschEditor and Inspirator