I love my car.

I hate my car.

I hate my car.

I love my car.

After 14 years my car is still cute despite it worn seats and pitted exterior. I don’t blame it for breaking down once in a while. Really, I don’t blame the car. The car is old and is entitled to break down once in a while.

Like most people nowadays I can’t afford to get a new car. To be honest I am a sentimental person and have grown attached to the car. It is a green Volkswagon Beetle and has about 78,000 miles on it. I like to think of the car as vintage rather then old. It makes me feel better about driving it.

Over the years I have many mechanics service my car. Victor was the last mechanic to work on my car. Victor with the German accent and the gold tooth who laughed at me when I got myself locked in my car and when my car would fill with water when it rained.

Kal is my current mechanic. He is a great mechanic who has a nice way of giving me the bad news about my car that does not make me feel bad about my car. Kal is the the person who has inspired me to create the pictures featured in Wizard. I have spent a lot of time in Kal’s shop waiting for my car to be repaired. One day while waiting for an oil change I thought to myself that Kal was a lot like the Wizard from the story “The Wizard of Oz”. He is the person people come to for help when their cars are broken down. He is the Wizard who fixes their cars and sends them on their way home.

Kal allowed me to photograph his shop during working hours. He often gave me auto parts that might be of interest to me. Wizard is a portrait of Kal’s Car repair shop loosely based on the OZ story and other ideas I had while taking photographs of the shop and things found in the shop when I was there.

At times I see myself as Dorothy with a green Volkswagon Beetle. I come to the Wizard to fix my car. In the OZ story it is not the Wizard that sends her home but she sends herself home with the Ruby Slippers. I think in time I need to find a way to get a new car, but for now I am thankful the Wizard is here keeping my Green Bug going.

— Christine Anderson