ARTIST STATEMENT by Sue Steele Thomas The automobile itself is an extremely significant part of our culture and way of life. As a painter I choose the automobile, people and surrounding landscape as the subject matter. The automobile, is within itself, a work of art. The genius of designers who create flat drawings and turn them into three-dimensional, moving, working machines intensifies my ambition to capture such strong images. Automobile art is a growing trend and is finding its way into the art world as a popular aesthetic art form. As a child, I helped my father with the automobile repairs. My job was to learn which tools were which. I became the mechanic's assistant. This created a fascination for me with the automobile. Another influence came from participating in