“I decided to take on this project because I wanted to create a still life on the hubcap. Instead, I ended up creating a 3-D sculpture of an ant which was not part of my discipline in painting. I found the Plymouth hubcap first because it reminded me of my hometown of Plymouth, Pennsylvania. I thought a still life painting would be the better idea but it did not work due to the curvature of the hubcap. I decided to wait and see if inspiration would strike and a year later it did. One day I noticed a small ant that I used as a prop for one of my paintings and that became my inspiration. I needed more hubcaps to create the body, head and abdomen and luckily, there were a few remaining. In the end I found that constructing something from metal was more rewarding because it was an area I was unfamiliar with.”Michael E. Hockenbury