A couple years ago a flatbed truck showed up at my driveway by invitation. I’d been in a rainy town  north of here to check on a craigslist ad and to my surprise, the sale went forward. That was the day I thought my car had been shot by the agitators in a union confrontation at the port. After negotiating the sale, which included that the vehicle would be delivered to my house, I went to visit near kin. In the forest lined S-Curves, suddenly there was a boom. It sounded to my ears like a shotgun had been fired. My drivers side mirror was gone with only a ragged stub left on the car.

No pellet holes were obvious, and the car was otherwise intact.

At the base of the hill, I pulled into a store lot to examine the vehicle and to my surprise there were no bullet holes. Just hair.

I drive up the hill to find evidence of the collision, expecting to find a mirror on the roadside or blood.

No evidence could be found.

Hair was matted along the side of the convertable top and across half the trunk. A dent was in the little post that bordered the roll up window that remains to this day.

The mirror has since been replaced by a factory original from Mazda.

An hour after I made it home, the flatbed truck arrived with my Lotus Europa strapped safely down. Ramps were put in place, and the car was started and driven down them and then into my driveway.

Researching the car to map it’s rejuvination, I discovered resources I would learn to treasure. Among them, a users group devoted exclusively to the Lotus Europa.

This rare vehicle is well known among “car” people. But nowhere is it better known than among the owners, many of whom know every peice of their car because they’ve seen, handled, or replaced just about every part.

It’s a glorious thing to be part of this group.

Every year a calendar is made and sold among them. For two years, I’ve offered art to contribute to it’s success. Having been niether rebuffed nor acknowledged, it occures to me that this sort of contribution is better done entirely in studio and entirely of art.

And so, I’m designing the fifteen panels that I hope will elevate the perception of the vehicle with their beauty both as reproduction art and calendar images.