Keeping a car clean in the UAE is a difficult job. With so much sand in the air, blown around constantly, all it takes is a few days of neglect to make a car look like it's been abandoned for years. Nobody likes a dirty car.
Except for Scott Wade, that is.
Primarily a graphic artist based in San Marcos, Texas, Wade would be a very busy man beautifying the UAE. He is a self-proclaimed "dirty car artist" and actually draws on cars professionally.
Wade started doodling on cars seven years ago when he lived in a rural area. "I lived on a long dirt road for a little over 20 years, where you can wash your car but the next day it's just filthy. The rear windows were always dirty because you drive down this road, which is just limestone gravel and a little bit of clay, and it just billows up in this big white cloud behind you and it settles on the car.
"It costs too much money to wash your car every day, and also we're trying to save a little water so I would just go out there and play. I'd get home from work having had a long day, and I'd go and draw funny faces," Wade recalls as he digs out his tools ahead of a demonstration of his art on our car. "I'd try to get shading with the pads of my fingers and I'd try my fingernails and gradually I started thinking of other things, like brushes and rubber paint shaper tools. I realised that you can do very detailed and shaded drawings - it's pretty cool."
What started as doodling turned into something of an obsession, and now Wade can spend hours at a time drawing the most intricate of artworks in dust. The quality is astonishing as well, with portraits of the Mona Lisa and Albert Einstein among his notable collection of works (or they would be if they hadn't been washed or blown away).
"A drawing can take anywhere from 15 minutes to six hours, depending on the complexity," says Wade. "When I do festivals I'll dirty up all the windows all the way round and sometimes I'll do the entire car or even multiple cars."
Today he is going to use the world close to his place outside Houston as inspiration for art on our Ford Fiesta's rear window.
"We're in Texas and I figured I'll do some longhorns [cows]," he explains as he starts scraping and smudging shapes from the dirt on the rear window. Having dirtied the car sufficiently with a special blend of thick dust stuck on with oil, the longhorn shape starts to emerge as Wade scratches the cow's outline with a whittled stick then fills in more detail with fine sable brushes.
Speed is important. Weather and pressure from audiences watching mean his art rarely takes more than an hour to complete.
"Because I do events and media things, I've had to learn how to do it quickly, so I use a little bit of oil on the window to make it stick and I blow the dust on and it just takes a few minutes to do. It's not very hard and it gives a pretty nice opaque coating just like you'd driven up and down the road."
Wade has been known to sketch art on naturally dirty cars he comes across. It's a bit like Banksy using a parked Ford for his canvas. His works cost a few hundred dollars instead of a few million though, even though they are not permanent.
"It starts around $500 (Dh1,800) and goes from there. It just depends on how much travel is involved, where I have to go and how complex the pieces are and how much time I spend but it can be anything."
For the future, he wants to get bigger and better. But that does not mean working on bigger cars. Wade has his sights set skywards.
"My biggest ambition is to do this style of artwork on a skyscraper sixty storeys high - to do a huge image, maybe a bucking bronco to advertise a rodeo or just some kind of great big beautiful scene on a giant skyscraper where you have to get up on window-washing scaffolding," he says.
Back on the Fiesta, just more than an hour after Wade started work, his session is over. Our car is adorned with the most intricate drawing of two Texas longhorn cattle, staring mournfully out at the world as if sitting in the back of the car.
Alas, just as Wade is finishing, the rain starts to fall, and by the time the drawing is complete it's pouring down. Upsetting? For us, hoping to drive his art to Dallas, four hours away, perhaps. But not for Wade.
"The impermanence of this art form is something that really turns me on," he says. "There's something liberating about it because you're free to just have fun with it. It's not going to last - nothing lasts. Even the greatest works of art are crumbling."
And with that, this latest work of art melts in the rain and trickles slowly away back to where it came from - the dirt. Talk about recycling.
See more of Wade's work at www.dirtycarart.com.
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Jordan cabinet changes
In
- Raed Mozafar Abu Al Saoud, Minister of Water and Irrigation
- Dr Bassam Samir Al Talhouni, Minister of Justice
- Majd Mohamed Shoueikeh, State Minister of Development of Foundation Performance
- Azmi Mahmud Mohafaza, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research
- Falah Abdalla Al Ammoush, Minister of Public Works and Housing
- Basma Moussa Ishakat, Minister of Social Development
- Dr Ghazi Monawar Al Zein, Minister of Health
- Ibrahim Sobhi Alshahahede, Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Environment
- Dr Mohamed Suleiman Aburamman, Minister of Culture and Minister of Youth
Out
- Dr Adel Issa Al Tawissi, Minister of High Education and Scientific Research
- Hala Noaman “Basiso Lattouf”, Minister of Social Development
- Dr Mahmud Yassin Al Sheyab, Minister of Health
- Yahya Moussa Kasbi, Minister of Public Works and Housing
- Nayef Hamidi Al Fayez, Minister of Environment
- Majd Mohamed Shoueika, Minister of Public Sector Development
- Khalid Moussa Al Huneifat, Minister of Agriculture
- Dr Awad Abu Jarad Al Mushakiba, Minister of Justice
- Mounir Moussa Ouwais, Minister of Water and Agriculture
- Dr Azmi Mahmud Mohafaza, Minister of Education
- Mokarram Mustafa Al Kaysi, Minister of Youth
- Basma Mohamed Al Nousour, Minister of Culture
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
World Cup final
Who: France v Croatia
When: Sunday, July 15, 7pm (UAE)
TV: Game will be shown live on BeIN Sports for viewers in the Mena region
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THREE
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Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
