Redhead Ride Turns Heads in Windsor Terrace

Did you know that the world's first ghost story was told by a redhead? How about that redheads themselves were invented sometime between 200 and 400 B.C.?

These fun—if fictional—facts come courtesy of Devin Meyers, or more specifically, Devin Meyers' exotically painted truck, which has become a fixture on Prospect Park Southwest since he and his fiancee moved to Windsor Terrace from New Orleans last month.

"I had never seen a painted car until I moved to New Orleans, and when I did I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really interesting,'” said Meyers, 27, who relocated to New Orleans from his native South Carolina following Hurricane Katrina.

Not only was the car interesting—it was for sale. Meyers didn't buy it, but he did call the owner, who offered to teach him how car art was done.

"I had this beat up Toyota at the time, and I figured this opportunity had kind of fallen into my lap, so I might as well just paint the car," he said.

Painting a truck, it turns out, isn't a whole lot different than painting a canvass, said Meyers, who has in the past channeled his creative powers into everything from making murals to blanketing an entire car in beans for a parade he co-created.

He said the first step is to illustrate the car using a Sharpie, and then fill in the lines with outdoor sign-making paint (Meyers prefers 1 Shot). The rest, he said, is up to you.

Meyers' four-wheeled masterpiece eventually broke down, but returning to monochromatic car ownership was no longer an option for the life-long carrot top, who decked out his current periwinkle pick-up with images of cartoon redheads and tidbits of (fake) redhead-related information.

"When I was living in New Orleans, my friends would always know where I was," he said, adding that just recently, an acquaintance visiting New York from Louisiana randomly found Meyers' by his truck on the street.

"I get text messages sometimes and they’re like, 'Oh my God, I just saw you!'" he said. "It's fun."

Meyers, a history teacher at Coney Island Prep, said he initially wanted to adorn his ride with images from his life experiences. But once he started painting, his hair color quickly emerged as the central theme.

"If you’re a redhead, you grew up sort of being different from everybody else, so I think redheaded people come up with this sense of pride," he said. "It's almost like an ethnicity."

While Meyers' said Southerners were more apt to strike up a conversation about the car than most New Yorkers, he allowed that his racy ride has definitely caught the attention of his new neighbors.

"Usually the people who come up to me and talk about the car are very supportive of the car," he said.

"Anywhere you go you, you always get lots of people looking at it."

View more of Meyers' work here, or email him at devmeyers@gmail.com.