They say art – even drug-induced, stylistically interpreted or simply great art – is an imitation of life.    But every once in a while you find art that’s no more deliberate than the whims of everyday happenstance.  Such as this early ’50’s Studebaker Starlite: the same today as it was when this picture was taken last fall, as it was when I saw it the first time I visited Green County, KY back in 1996… as it likely was for some indeterminate time before then. I know what you’re thinking, for I’ve thought it too;  I’ve also been told, owing to the proclivities of the vehicle’s owner, that I should wait for the estate sale that stubbornly never comes.  Yet who would I be to dare ruin a good thing?   This car speaks to an optimism – propeller beak pointed steadfastly into the bathing rains and light of day – that inspires us to dream and create and yes, sometimes to hoon.   Isn’t that what great cars and great art are supposed to do?  A melding of the two is priceless. Whether your motive artworks are replicas in miniature, or the hoonable treasure you’d lovingly build from such barn finds, may you always find the inspiration needed to get the job done and share it with the world. (And yes, I still think about it).