I am an antique dealer by trade, the artist side has evolved through serendipity. When days were quiet in the store I started looking at the objects that fill it to see if they could become something else. Coffee cans, musical instruments and vacuum cleaners became lamps and lampshades. A Picasso-esque owl emerged from a bike wheel, clock mechanism and cutlery. Whatever I made had a degree of humor to it. I was and continue to be fascinated with transformation of the ordinary into extraordinary.

I have always appreciated the advertising art in old magazines. The art is good and the images, from today's perspective, are campy and very funny. Everyone is SO happy in them. My first collages were birthday cards to family and friends using these images. People enjoyed them and encouraged me to continue doing collages. I started looking a little deeper at this advertising art. And I saw cars, cars everywhere, and the people in them were not only happy, but the happiest they have EVER been. I had to do something with them. I began by just cutting out piles of cars, compiling a huge inventory that I could play with.

At first I juxtaposed the cars onto botanical prints and old large photographs using them as flower petals, vines, headdresses. These images were fun but I knew there was more to it if I could only figure out what. Then one day, a Sunday school picture of the Last Supper came my way. I realized the colors and print quality were the same as my cars. I started playing and voila! The Last Fender Bender was created. I knew I had found my niche. Classic cars and classic art woven seamlessly together to create something new. In this series of collages called "Fine Art Traffic Jam", I do not disturb the original painting at all. The integrity of the original painting is what makes the piece work. Instead I looked for cars whose color matches perfectly with the painting and literally weave them into the painting so they look like they have always been there. Not so much a transformation as a companionship.

It is a time consuming process. First to find the right cars and then the painstaking task of cutting and weaving them in. This is all done by hand using magnifying goggles and a variety of cutting tools. Even after enlarging them you cannot see cut marks. I feel that is one of the elements that make these collages work so well. In the series I am working on now, I am taking elements from classic paintings and weaving them into the cars as well as doing some "free-style" collages using both elements to create something entirely different. I have also been commissioned for some custom work. People give me a picture of the car they want in the collage or tell me which car they are interested in and I see what I can come up with.