The Art Car Parade is the highlight of a three-day celebration of the drive to create: Art Car Weekend. But it all began with a donated 1967 Ford staton wagon and $800 worth of paint and plastic fruit. And now, 26 years later, it attracts 250+ vehicles (and other entries) from 23 states, Canada, and Mexico. Photo: An art car is seen on Allen Parkway during the 26th Annual Houston Art Car Parade on May 11 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Scott Halleran)

“Michael Mathias Prechtl (April 26, 1926, Amberg – March 19, 2003, Nuremberg) was a German artist, illustrator and cartoonist. He served as a soldier on the Eastern Front during World War II and spent 1945-49 as a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union”. – Wikipedia

Photo: “Der Gestiefelte Kater (Puss in Boots)”, 1997. Artwork by Michael Mathias Prechtl

“Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Nicknamed the “Bronze Venus”, the “Black Pearl”, and even the “Créole Goddess” in anglophone nations.

Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture and to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre”.

Photo: American entertainer Josephine Baker in costume for her famous “banana dance”. Baker was an overnight sensation when she arrived in Paris in the mid-1920s. (Photo by Walery/Getty Images)

A three month-old baby gorilla named Hasani sits in the grass March 11, 2009 at the San Francisco Zoo in San Francisco, California. The newborn gorilla was given the name Hasani. Hasani's father, a twenty seven year-old gorilla named Oscar Jonsey, picked between five color coded cantaloupes representing the five name finalists to come up with the newborn's name that was submitted by Amanda VerPloeg of Oskaloosa, Iowa. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Artwork by Ruth Bellotti & Steve Rosewell called “Soldier Scale 1:1” is seen at the 2008 Sculpture by the Sea launch at Mark's Park, Bondi on October 15, 2008 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Gaye Gerard/Getty Images)

Finia, a visiting student from Hanover, cools off under a water sprinkler in front of the Chancellery on June 10, 2010 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Libyan rebel fighters protect a pro-Gaddafi loyalist fighter from angry onlookers as he is brought in for medical attention to the Tripoli Central Hospital on August 25, 2011 in Tripoli, Libya. Heavy fighting continues in the Libyan capital between Gaddafi's forces and the surging rebel presence. Rebels, who have issued a $1.7m reward for Gaddafi's capture “dead or alive”, are attempting to reach Colonel Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte but have met loyalist resistance. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Fuse TV VJ's Marianela and Juliya attend the store opening of “Nigo's A Bathing Ape” with Pharrell Williams January 11, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images)