BAAABS
BAAABS with black faceted bodywork, a black face and ears, glowing flame eyes, rooftop dance floor, rear stairs and twin poofer masts

The Pitch · Seattle → Black Rock City

BAAABS

Where even black sheep belong.

Explore her in 3D Help build BAAABS
Meet her

A beacon outside the flock

Inspired by BAAAHS. Fueled by Sass. Driven to blast Fire and Disco.

BAAABS—the Bad Ass Amazingly Awesome Black Sheep—is my lighthouse for misfits and outcasts.

She is a towering, fire-eyed black sheep with a rooftop dance floor, built in Seattle and bound for Burning Man.

Her fiery flatulence beckons those that find more freedom outside a flock than within one

Meet the shape of things to come

Every facet. Every angle.

The current design for BAAABS. Take her for a spin. The skin is translucent in this inspection view so you can see the components inside; it is not a prediction of the finished material’s transparency.

Three-quarter view of the complete BAAABS design

Earl concept · skirt-fitted hooves

Download 3D model

Explore the named panels and dimensions ↗

What is BAAABS?

An Ovine Dancefloor with IBS.

BAAABS is a monumental mobile artwork: a faceted black sheep with a welded steel frame and perforated aluminum skin, lit from within and carried on the bones of a school bus.

Dance or take in the Playa on her back, then come vibe with the Driver in the Lounge inside.

01 Black aluminum

A faceted, perforated skin wrapped around a working bus.

02 Light within

Violet and hot-pink light escaping through every opening.

03 Fire in her eyes

Flame-like light with a little menace and a lot of charm.

04 Dancing on top

A full-roof dance floor made for trouble beneath the stars.

BAAA, the shared root
BAAAHS in white with pink outlines BAAABS in black with pink outlines

The lineage

Inspired by BAAAHS.
Built to be a little more fiery.

We might not have BootyJuice on the decks, but we still love disco, house, and trance. BAAABS brings the beats wherever she rolls.

Family resemblance. Her own fire.

Current status

We won the bus auction.

Earl is the 2007 Thomas Saf-T-Liner HDX we won from Morton School District in Washington. This full-size, rear-engine school bus is the next big step from a vision and a design to a very real black sheep.

Next: bring her home, inspect and measure the donor, then work through Phase One: structure, skin, light, fire, rooftop dance floor, controls, safety systems, and the approvals required to roll onto the playa.

  1. Now Bring her home

    Auction won. Next comes the donor inspection, pickup, and build measurements.

  2. Phase One Build + approve

    Turn that bus into a safe, working mutant vehicle.

  3. Phase Two Turn up the sound

    Give her a properly engineered voice for disco, house, and trance.

The bus we won

Meet Earl, our 2007 Thomas HDX.

Our winning bid is for this 2007 Thomas HDX in Morton, Washington. The full-length, rear-engine layout gives us the scale we have been designing for. Inspection, donor measurements, and verified payload capacity still have to guide the structure and rooftop design.

Inside, we expect to remove nearly every passenger seat while probably keeping the rear row. That leaves an open, adaptable volume for equipment, storage, circulation, and whatever the build ultimately teaches us we need.

The scale is deliberate. In her finished art-car configuration, BAAABS is being designed for deep-playa operation rather than ordinary street use. We accept the turning radius, clearance, storage, transport, setup, and access constraints that come with building her at full size; the operating plan will be shaped around the artwork instead of shrinking the artwork around the operating plan. For the drive from Washington, the removable art assemblies come off, and the bus plus all retained hardware must fit within a 102-inch outside road width. The current frame studies have not yet established a compliant configuration.

From school bus to showgirl

The transformation

One practical layer at a time, a bus becomes a black sheep built to survive dust, dancing, and terrible ideas executed well.

  1. 01

    Bones

    A roadworthy bus and welded steel structure give the sheep her stance, strength, and unmistakable silhouette.

  2. 02

    Skin

    Black perforated aluminum panels turn the frame into a shifting field of facets—solid by day, porous after dark.

  3. 03

    Spark

    Light pours through the perforations. Animated light brings her eyes to life. The rooftop becomes a dance floor beneath the open sky.

  4. 04

    Voice

    A properly engineered sound system completes the transformation and gives BAAABS a voice worthy of the outfit.

Close-up of round holes arranged in staggered rows in an unpainted perforated metal sheet
Unpainted sample shown. BAAABS’s panels will be finished black.

The skin we have in mind

Black metal.
Light through the holes.

Flat sheets of perforated aluminum will become the sheep’s angular panels, mounted over a welded steel frame. The staggered round holes let the lighting inside show through the black finish.

The current candidate is 3003-H14 aluminum with approximately 33% open area. The photo shows the perforation pattern; the black finish comes later.

Sheet thickness
0.063 inches
Round holes
3/32 inch
Staggered centers
5/32 inch
Planned finish
Black

A little help from the flock

Help Build BAAABS

Help turn a bus, a big idea, and a whole lot of queer joy into a black sheep with a place for all of us.

Support the build on GoFundMe

Help this black sheep take shape.

Visit our fundraiser to read the story, follow updates, and choose how much you’d like to contribute.

Donate on GoFundMe

Opens GoFundMe in a new tab. You’ll choose your amount and complete your donation there.

Privately owned. Community supported.

BAAABS is a privately owned art vehicle project, not a charity. Contributions are not tax-deductible charitable donations.

While deeply appreciated, donations do not buy ownership, equity, tickets, camp membership, rides, or other goods or services.

What your support helps make possible

First up: completing the bus purchase, inspecting her, and bringing her home. From there, contributions help cover the practical work behind the spectacle.

Bus + build
Bus purchase and inspection, repairs, steel framing, aluminum panels, fabrication supplies, and the rooftop structure.
Light, fire + sound
Lighting, electrical systems, fire effects and controls, and sound equipment as the build develops.
Safety + getting there
Engineering, safety equipment, required approvals, insurance, transport, storage, and maintenance.

These are planned uses, not a fixed allocation. Contributions support the project as a whole; priorities and timing may change as costs and requirements become clearer. Payment-processing fees reduce the amount available to the project.

BAAABS is still in development. A contribution does not guarantee completion, a launch date, or an appearance at Burning Man or any other event.

See where the build stands

The reason

It will be a beacon for misfits like me that just need to shake it out a little.

And to fart fire at playa passersby.

BAAABS. Where even black sheep belong.