"It all started around 1960, my love for American automotive design. Each year the “Big Three”, Ford, GM and Chrysler would roll out sleek new designs that distilled the essence of the optimistic decade ahead. The practice of automotive design in America has been an evolution that closely mirrors our culture, so the ancestral classics that predated the 1960’s also provided a profound source of interest.

I love to photograph old cars, so when an opportunity to attend a visit by the famed “Candy Bomber” that dropped supplies on the besieged city of Berlin during the Airlift of 1948, I hurried out to Smith Reynolds Airport to see the show. Camera in hand, I was delighted to encounter a number of period automobiles also on display. It was there and then that I photographed the 1950 Ford Sedan that you see here. Unfortunately, the skies were overcast and the image was subdued.

That is when I commissioned Hillary to take my photograph and interpret it in the manner of photorealists painters like Chuck Close or Richard Estes. The resulting work of art has stunningly enlivened the “portrait” of the old Ford in the most delightful way! I treasure this painting and the memories it evokes. Thanks, Hillary for your brilliant work!"