Hoohoo's Honeymoon Harley

O N   W O O D — This 18 x 30 inch piece on plywood, Hoohoo's Honeymoon Harley, is an image of my aunt, in 1947, the year she married. She and my uncle went on their honeymoon to New Hampshire on his Harley-Davidson, and went to the motorcycle hill climbs that summer. Click to see in greater detail. I've used paint, paper, wall joint compound and polyurethane.

B T W :

V R O O M  W I T H  A  V I E W  O F   T H E   W O R L D .  By the time i was 5-6 years old, the early '60s, the free-spirited Hoohoo was driving Thunderbirds and teaching the wide-eyed young Casey the merits of braking into a turn, and accelerating out of it with her left elbow firmly planted on the windowsill of the open driver's window. Well-rounded, she also taught me the color wheel—how peach or melon really did go with turquoise and black—and how to make them all work while decorating with antiques.

In the photo above, I'm sitting in the driver's seat of the Silver Mink '58 Thunderbird hardtop. It had a beautiful black and white pleated bucket seat interior, and a radio aerial mounted centrally on the trunklid. Hoohoo had this car up to 120 mph once on a country straightaway. "Don't tell your Mother," was a favorite inside joke of ours for years. Kindred spirits while i was growing up, we often referred to each other as Laurel & Hardy, and even Lucy & Ethel (!) because of our mutual hijinks and propensity for screwing up in the middle of a project, only to make it better than ever imagined in the end. We had great fun together.

I owe my process to Hoohoo I guess, although i owe it to SuZen for making me realize it WAS my process and to trust it and make it work in my favor—I'm forever indebted to her for that!