Rose Simpson earned her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, then wowed the art world with her 85 Chevy El Camino art car. This is her 2nd art car, a 64 Riv, and it's going to be in her exhibition at San Francisco’s de Young Museum

“I learned to drive when I was 11 and bought my first car when I was 12,” she says.

When Simpson returned home from RISD, she enrolled in automotive science to learn collision repair and classic-car customization and met artist Jeff Brock, (builder of Bombshell Betty https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/11/i-finally-found-brocks-bombshell-betty.html the 52 Buick Super Riviera that has set seven world speed records at Bonneville)

“Jeff was incredibly influential,” says Simpson. “I wasn’t studying collision repair so I could build something to go in a museum. That was not the intention. I was there to build cars so that I could cruise. But Jeff said, ‘Why don’t you build [an art] car?’ ”

“Rose is one of my favorite human beings I’ve ever met,” says Brock, “I’m honored to have been there and been part of [creating Rose's 1st art car], but at the time, I thought, Oh, you crazy woman. You’re taking on way more than you can handle. The car she started with was a wreck. It was so sad how much damage was hiding under the paint, and the more she dug into it, the more I felt bad for her. It was so hard to even get it to the point of being a blank canvas.”

https://www.altaonline.com/culture/art/a65875713/rose-b-simpson-art-cars-de-young-museum