Knox Chalk Car Knoxville's Inclusive Chalkboard Paint Car

April 10, 2023 Beau Knowles  Knox LGBT Businesses

The Knox Chalk Car is a funky little Chalkboard Paint Car in East Tennessee. You can see the car parked festivals, street parties, in parking spaces or at parks so people can draw on it. Drawing on a chalkboard car seems to make people happy.  We find that they like to share their feelings, for example writing "I love ..., or Go Vote", drawing flowers, hearts, anime characters, or show their artistic talents such as drawing a flame that goes all the way down one side of the car. We take photos of the art to make YouTube, TikTok and Facebook reels videos.

I painted my first car in 2018, the car was a hand-me-down vehicle from my parents who had stated "they wanted me to drive a dependable car", as my love of old cars had often landed my car in the repair shop.  The "New to me" car was a silver Honda Element. On a whim I decided to paint the car a different color. Being innovative I decided to paint the car myself. After researching how to paint a car. I came upon a story about a school teacher who painted her car with chalkboard paint then let her students draw on it. In the decision to paint the car I also decided to use chalk board paint to match my fingernail polish versus going with the standard black chalkboard paint. The first car, a Honda Element, was a Turquoise Blue. The next one, a Honda Civic is OPI Sassy Violet.

Once I painted the first car I found it fun to leave the chalk out at the park to let people draw on the car. I received great response from anyone that drew on the car. I thought to share the car at a festival. I painted the car in June 2019. I had heard that Maryville TN was going to have a pride festival. I asked the organizers if I could bring our chalkboard car. During that communication we decided the best place to park the car was in the Children's section of the festival. Blount Pride Festival was our first festival of any sort. We were there all day, Children drew on the car but also adults. At that event I decided that since we were an Autism and Rainbow family, the car's mission should be to promote INCLUSION, DIVERSITY, and AUTISM ACCEPTANCE.

Though the car was created in 2019 we were only able to attend one event in the summer season. The next year 2020 all of the festivals were closed as everyone was  safer at home.  There were no events to attend that year. In 2021 we attended South Side Pride, now known as SoKno Pride. In 2022 you might have seen our car at Blount Pride in Maryville TN , SoKno Pride in South Knoxville TN, in the Knoxville Pride Parade, Pride Picnic Lgbt+ in Cleveland, TN or parked in front of South Press Coffee. So far in the summer of 2023 we are scheduled for Harper Auto Square's Car's and Coffee on April 23, 2023. and  SoKno Pride June 10, 2023.  We plan to attend many more events this summer.

WHAT WE NEED TO CONTINUE OUR MISSION:

INVITES: Please invite us to your events. Email me at Knoxchalkcar@gmail.com

FOLLOWERS:  Social media followers help us get sponsors for maintenance of the car and travel expenses. This is our Facebook page, we post Facebook Reels and photos of things people have drawn on the car. I would love to get 1000 followers on this page. Knox Chalk Car  https://www.facebook.com/knoxchalkcar

This is our Tiktok page. We make videos from the art that is drawn on the car. I try very hard to make all the videos positive vibes and pg 13. I have 17,600 views on my hashtag but only about 80 followers.  https://www.tiktok.com/@knoxchalkcar

YOUTUBE CHANNEL: I have just started building our youtube channel. Social media is such a learning curve for us old people. lol https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ2016_Fe5LxKdKEBxGLTkg

WEBSITE: I created a website for the car. I've added Autism resources section to the website which I hope to build on.  www.knoxchalkcar.com

PATREON-ISH: As all this was new to me I didn't realize that I should have been adding photos and videos to our donations page. I have recently started uploading photos to the Gallery section. There is a Membership section to receive email updates on our posts and journey, a Wish list and Commissions section. I can draw messages on the car if you aren't available to draw on it yourself. All messages have to be lgbtq friendly.  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/knoxchalkcar

In the end, the car has been a fun adventure that turned into a mission. We would like this journey to continue far into the future.