OUR FORD, HIGHHEAD 

Edwin Dickinson’s “Our Ford, Highhead” is executed with oil on what appears to be a wooden panel. This brings a unique material presence to the work. Look closely, and you’ll see that Dickinson applied the paint in thick, expressive strokes, emphasizing the materiality of the pigment itself. The texture and viscosity of oil paint are used to evoke a sense of place, grounding the vehicle in its environment. The muted color palette and the brushwork's immediacy imbue the subject with a sense of nostalgia. The choice of depicting a Ford – an icon of American industrialization and mass production – is also significant. Dickinson seems to be engaging with the complex relationship between the handmade and the machine-made, and what that relationship looks like within the broader context of American life. Ultimately, Dickinson's painting demonstrates how the fusion of materials, craft, and social context, challenges traditional boundaries between fine art and the everyday world.