The Little World

Overblown is my favourite colour.

You cannot look at a modern motor car and not experience a heart-stopping moment. The colour – whether black, white, or grey – will be so depressing that your ticker will slow dangerously. You may lose consciousness or go into deep depression. Memories of the actual spectrum may fade from your mind.

Not so at the model car show – car modellers have access to spray cans, airbrushes, and jars full of little hairy sticks. They have candy colours, pearlescents, metallics, and chromes. They are not afraid to combine colours and finishes. The best ones are like drunken Picassos with Pactra cans.

They draw me back to the multicoloured fifties and sixties and give me hope that the automotive world will eventually throw off the mantle of monochromism and come back to life. I applaud every crass choice they make and hope that someone – likely a Finn or a Romanian – will follow the lead and decide to spray paint their new Toyota orange and blue.