I have chosen, with her kind permission, Cherlandra Estrada's (coocoolumbelle) "Rust" to use as my inspiration for this years "ripped off" show. As I delved into her portfolio looking for inspiration, the colors she used on her original "Rust" painting grabbed my attention immediately. I love the colors and the texture she used to create this piece. For most of my life I've been around cars and trains, therefore I know rust. Not always a good thing when reliability and maintenance are concerned, but if you do step back and look, it does have a tendency to create it's own palette of colors and textures over steel. In my search for colors to use I photographed a set of diamond plated steps used on our local railroad overpass, a roadside guardrail, several storm drains and a City of Philadelphia manhole cover. I then used Paint Shop 8 to piece it all together.