Marcia Wiley wants to make you smile. Her goal is to get you to stop and take notice of the wonder around you. 

Her slogan is “transforming the mundane.” She hopes to shake up the ordinary world and highlighting the wild and extraordinary. 

And, if you’re lucky, she might want to take you for a ride. 

The Ballard artist is currently working on a whole different kind of project—one that’s part performance art and part taxi service. 

Usually, Wiley can be found in her studio blowing colorful, unique glass cups or teaching glass camps to children and adults. 

Soon, she hopes to be behind the wheel of a ’67 Checker Marathon cab. 

Wiley purchased the vehicle and dreams of bringing it back to its former glory.  Once restored, the cab will take a turn in a different direction.

Instead of paying for a lift, riders will be asked to tell the driver a story about their lives. 

Wiley recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to make her dream a reality. Her goal is to raise $9,444 to cover the repairs needed to get the cab back on the road and to launch “Miss Direction’s Checker Cab Ride Service.”

Wiley explains that the complimentary taxi will spread “everyday magic” around Seattle.

Her adventure has roots in Burning Man, an annual festival in the desert in Nevada. 

Wiley has attended the event since 2002. She is drawn to the festival for a number of reasons—the art and the community there, the atmosphere that encourages self-expression and the economy that relies entirely on gifting. She also enjoys the air of mischief and play.

“People have different names and different identities there,” Wiley said. 

That’s where she created her alter ego Miss Direction. Her gifts to festival-goers included directions and fortunes. 

Wiley decided to keep the gig going when she returned home to Seattle in 2005. 

She would dress up in a uniform--a jacket decorated with compasses and a funky crown-- and then place a magnetic placard on her car reading “Miss Direction.” 

Wiley would then go for a drive, find a woman waiting for a bus and offer her a free ride to her destination. 

“In exchange, I would listen to their life stories,” Wiley said. “The point was to have this unusual experience and hopefully bring some joy to the world.”

With a newly renovated classic cab, Wiley believes she can take her service to the next level and make it an even more exciting trip. “It’s just creating a moment of delight,” she said.  

The ’67 Checker Marathon also has a history. The car was originally driven in West Seattle. Then, it was sold to a family in Maple Valley with four children and a penchant for road trips. 

The Locatellis owned the car for 20 years. “They loved this car,” Wiley said. 

When the children grew up and left home, the Locatellis sold the cab. 

Megan Locatelli Hyska drove the family car when she was in high school, before her parents sold it. “I remember seeing it drive away,” she said. “We felt bad letting it go. We always regretted it being sold.”

One day, years later, she saw the car for sale, while riding the bus home from work. A taxi sign installed on top read “Miss Meg.”

Locatelli Hyska knew she had to get the Checker back. Not long after she purchased her old car, a postcard appeared on the windshield from Wiley, expressing her interest in buying the cab for Miss Direction. 

“I emailed her and said that I was sorry and had just purchased it, but that if I ever wanted to sell it, I’d let her know,” Locatelli Hyska said. 

A few years passed and Locatelli Hyska ended up calling Wiley to ask if she would still be interested in buying the car. 

“It felt meant to be,” Locatelli Hyska said. 

After hearing Wiley’s plans, Locatelli Hyska was excited to see the car continue to make others happy, as it had for her family during her childhood. 

“It’s a dream come true,” Locatelli Hyska said. 

Her father John Locatelli, a retired University of Washington physics professor, will complete the repair job with the help of his son Adam, a machinist. 

Wiley explained that the Locatellis know the car inside and out and have the automotive skills to do the job. They have already taken the Checker apart and started the work. 

“The car needs a fair amount of work,” Wiley said. “But these things were made out of steel and meant to live forever.”

Once the cab is up and running, she plans to offer a free ride once a week. 

Wiley said Seattle is changing so rapidly and sometimes seems that it is losing what makes it unique, its essence or soul. 

“This is sort of my reaction to what’s happening,” she said. “Maybe my project is a way to break out of that. This car is kind of here to break the bubble.”

The cab is also a way to connect people, to share a moment through a good conversation. 

Wiley enjoys hearing the stories from her riders. “Everybody’s lives are so different,” she said. “All of us are more interesting and complicated than you might think.”

She wants her cab to be a place to come together over the unexpected. “The whole thing is just going to be so much fun,” she said. 

To learn more and support the project, visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/1645352731/miss-directions-checker-cab-rid….