Samantha Zimmermann’s Fine Art

• Tell us about growing up in a house full of engineers… from the sounds of it, you came up in a family of auto enthusiasts. What sorts of vehicles did you grow up around? What really got your attention?
• We’re captivated by the entire sweeping romance of your backstory, with your then sweetheart, now husband taking you to your first sports car race, the rolex-24, and suddenly it all clicks. Tell us about that – what was it? What was the magic moment that made it all come together?
• In your pieces you focus heavily on racing in the 70s and 80s, which could be considered the heyday of sports car racing, with names like Haywood, Stuck, St. James, Lanier, Ribbs and others in that mix. Why that time period? What’s the draw/appeal?
• Many people say, and it’s true of racing as well “failures breed successes” – are there some projects that you look back on and go “the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze” or maybe something you still want to “get around to” #roundtuit 
• If you had to give advice to other (starving) aspiring artists, what would that be? 
• How does one go about acquiring some Samantha Zimmermann artwork? What is your commission process like? 
• What are you working on now? Any big projects you can share/reveal to our audience? #spoileralert

and much, much more!

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors, designers, and everything in between. Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder. How did they get that job or become that person?

The road to success is paved by all of us, because everyone has a story.

Executive Producer Tania: Like most enthusiasts, her love for cars and motorsports began at a young age. Formula One was a must on Sunday mornings. Raised in a family of NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers and technical drawers, our guest’s interest in the technicalities and precise nature of mechanical ingenuity came easily. Her childhood sweetheart, Michael, took her to her first 24 hours of Daytona in 2012, and her passion for all things motorsports has only continued to flourish from then through today.

Crew Chief Eric: Samantha Zimmerman is a fine artist specializing in realism with the breadth of her work [00:01:00] consisting of automotive and motorsport subjects. She joins us tonight from her home studio in San Antonio, Florida to tell us about how she blended her passion for art and motorsports into a blossoming career. So welcome to Brake Fix, Samantha.

Samantha Zimmermann: Thanks so much for having me on, Eric. I’m so excited to be able to sit here and chat with you guys this evening.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, like all good Brake Fix stories, everybody has a superhero origin. So tell us about growing up in a house full of engineers. From the sounds of it, you came up through a family of automotive enthusiasts.

So what sorts of vehicles did you grow up around and what really got your attention?

Samantha Zimmermann: Funny enough, my Grandmother and my grandfather were really big into PCA. They had a 914 back in the day. My grandma also had a 944. They used to take them around the country and do concours and all the PCA events and all that jazz.

And she has a few stories from where they’d Placed really well at some national events. On the other hand, my [00:02:00] dad was a lot more into the, uh, JDM scene and things along those lines. Like he had a Honda Prelude growing up with me and my mom had a Civic. So clearly I tended to, uh, teeter to one side of the spectrum versus the other, the Porsche side of things.

And that’s where I continue to stick.

Crew Chief Eric: So what made you go into art and painting, unlike following in the footsteps of your family and engineering and science and all that?

Samantha Zimmermann: From a very young age, at least, I’ve always been told that I was always really into art. Growing up with a bunch of technical drawers, obviously that passion for all things super precise and mechanical came with the territory.

I always really liked to draw. I always really liked to paint. It wasn’t always cars, but it’s just Something that I picked up and I couldn’t get away from.

Crew Chief Eric: You said it wasn’t always cars. What were some of your first creations? What brought you through the gateway into artistry?

Samantha Zimmermann: Uh, horses. And I [00:03:00] have a funny story about that too.

I grew up being an equestrian, so horseback rider. How Michael and I met was that he used to say horses were stupid. I would be like, no, they’re not. And I chased him around on the playground in second grade. Then as a consolation prize, he would steal his mom’s jewelry and bring it to me the next day.

Which she would be fond of, clearly, but it started with extra naturally aspirated horsepower, if you will.

Executive Producer Tania: And I saw one of your pieces that’s out on findartinamerica. com site for people who are interested in learning more and seeing some of your other pieces. The one Sly Eve Cavall, if I pronounced that correctly, it’s got three horses, it was a watercolor that you commissioned for somebody.

That is gorgeous painting.

Samantha Zimmermann: Thank you. Two more, uh, horsey paintings that I’ve done. within the last few years, but I would say for the majority now, it’s typically just portraits and car stuff, but I still like to do my

Crew Chief Eric: horses every so often. I mean, on the flip side of that, [00:04:00] she’s got BBS basket weave wheels too, so she’d have my attention.

Samantha Zimmermann: You can’t go wrong with BBSs. They make everything look amazing. We had a pair of E 80 eights for our 9 64 and they were so beautiful. .

Executive Producer Tania: You graduated from the University of South Florida, and so can you let some of our listeners know who may not be artists themselves? What does that progression look like when you go to university for art?

What are some of the classes you’re taking? How did you get trained? What did that look like?

Samantha Zimmermann: I got into USF. based off of artistic merit. So they brought me in with a small scholarship into their art program. Now USF’s art program specifically is a lot more modern, if you will, and conceptual in class versus being so illustrative.

I didn’t even major in painting when I went to USF. I was the printmaker, because my printmaking professor was so appreciative of my [00:05:00] skills as an illustrator, as opposed to my painting professors, who were like, just smear some paint around on the canvas and call it a day. Generally speaking though, when you’re going to university for art, you learn a lot of things along the lines of composition, color theory.

Those are your two building blocks and then overall technical skills. So how you end up using the medium to get the result that you want. Probably some of my favorite classes that I did take though, were art history, Renaissance art history was Baroque and Rococo. And then I did one on medieval art history, which was all.

Mostly like medieval manuscripts and stuff like that. It was pretty cool though. On the other hand, I was also a double major Biomedical Sciences and Fine Art.

Executive Producer Tania: That’s quite the combination.

Samantha Zimmermann: Oddly enough, yes. I had one path as opposed to the other, but I did really enjoy anatomy when I was in that class as well.

Executive Producer Tania: Taking anatomy classes is actually pretty helpful if you’re an artist who’s doing [00:06:00] human pictures or portraits or paintings, right? Absolutely.

Samantha Zimmermann: I think it’s funny. I see a lot of other artists and automotive artists, and it’s usually one way or the other not to rag on anybody, but it’s usually artists who can do people really well in organic shapes, or it’s people who can do cars really well and more geometric shapes.

It’s hard to find someone who can do a combination of both because they’re So

Executive Producer Tania: you just naturally had that ability to do that, or you’ve just practiced really hard because if anyone has never tried to draw a car, and I have, I’m not on your level of artistry, but a little bit of cartooning here and there is my area, but cars are very hard.

Trying to be realistic with a car. If you don’t have that perspective, right. And the proportions, right. You know, it’s one thing you’re drawing a house and one window is slightly bigger than the other or the height of the house, but if you have the heights and the proportions of the windshield to the headlights and all that [00:07:00] wrong, I mean, it just goes horrible really fast.

Samantha Zimmermann: I have some of my very first works that I’ve done. Just as a reminder to show myself where I’ve come from because my first piece of a car that I did minus the BBS that I have on Fine Art America, I did a 993 in green. Oh, honey, it’s rough. Like we’ve come a long way. We’re doing really good now but it’s taken a lot of practice for sure to get to the point that I’m at and it’s taken a lot of experimenting and switching from oils to pencil to acrylic and then oils I found is my happy place for sure.

A lot of practice and dedication to be able to just continue progressing like anything. They say it takes a thousand hours to master a skill. I mean, I’m sure I’ve put that in by now, but it’s definitely gotten to the point where I feel like I’m proficient at least.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s funny. I had these dreams when I was a kid of being an automotive designer.

[00:08:00] And you know, the first step in that is where you got to be able to draw. And to Tanya’s point, a complex three dimensional object, like a car on a two dimensional plane, a piece of paper is extremely complicated. Now behind you is the low and brown nine 62 behind me as a model of the Momo nine 35. When you’re looking at them in profile.

I think I could do that, but it’s when you suddenly take them into perspective that you’re right. All those proportions go completely nuts. And that’s something I could never wrap my head around. So I turned and I said, you know what? I’m going to do photography instead because I appreciate the aesthetic, but I can’t translate in my brain to the paper or to the canvas.

What it is I want to design.

Samantha Zimmermann: That’s okay. And I appreciate the hell out of all of the photographers and motorsports and automotive photographers out there. I mean, without them, I wouldn’t be able to do the work that I do. Anytime that I find a photo, I always ask the photographer ahead of time, Hey, is it cool if I use this picture for a reference?

I’ll send you a print as a thank you and give you all the credit. [00:09:00] For the original photo,

Crew Chief Eric: and that’s a great segue into how do you go from pen and ink to oils and acrylics to this new style that you see coming up? And there’s tons of other artists out there, pinstripe, Chris and others and yourself that are in the photo realistic.

Artistry, how do you take it to that level? I mean, I see some of these making of videos and I’m blown away. I’m fascinated by the techniques, but how do you get it to look like it was a photograph, but it’s really oils.

Samantha Zimmermann: Stylistically speaking. I think there’s some differentiations between each artist. So Manu, who I’ve met personally down at DRT in Miami.

Awesome guy. Absolute sweetheart. If you look at his work from about 10 feet away, it looks very photorealistic, but when you get close to it, it’s a little bit, I don’t want to say pop arty, but he’s very deliberate in his brushstrokes to where it’s very bold to get those bold highlights, but he also [00:10:00] does some nice gradients on top of that or underneath of that as well.

Penstripe Chris’s work, same thing. He’s a little bit More messy, I would say, but his work still comes off as being very realistic. Both amazing artists. I love both of their work. When you’re looking at doing something that looks like a photograph, you really have to look at shapes. You really have to look at what separates the foreground from the background.

So with most of my work, I do a soft focused or bokeh background. So it looks blurry. When you do that in conjunction with something that’s super in focus in the foreground, it helps aid to that really hyper realistic effect that you’re looking for. So when you’re looking at a car, you’re not seeing an outline in the photo.

It’s not like someone’s taking a pen and drawing an outline on it. What are the colors that separate it? That’s the most important thing. How does the light separate it? Second most important thing. [00:11:00] It’s really translating what your eye sees onto the canvas or paper, so to speak. So I look at things in all light, color, and shadow.

Crew Chief Eric: So are you building up in blocks or in stages or in layers, I guess? Or are you just developing it all in one shot?

Samantha Zimmermann: So generally speaking, what I’ll do is I’ll do the entire background first. That way I can paint on top of the background, what the main focus is. For instance, I have Bob Doyle’s Molnar Motorsports LMP3 car that I’m doing right now.

So I’m doing all the background at Daytona currently, and then I’ll go back in and I’ll paint his car on top.

Crew Chief Eric: So does the sketch of the car live underneath the background? So it’s always there as a reference, or do you just build on top of?

Samantha Zimmermann: I’ll leave a cutout of the drawing of the car basically. I might brush over the edges just a little bit.

I always have that there as my reference so I know where I’m going in the future when I get to that point.

Crew Chief Eric: These photorealistic paintings that you’re creating are obviously super [00:12:00] complicated, and I cannot fathom, you know, how many hours it takes to put one of these together, but I think our audience probably wants to know.

I mean, obviously we see the time lapse things on the internet and seems like you can get it all done in 20 minutes, right? But that’s not the case. What does it take to put something like that together?

Samantha Zimmermann: So typically I average about a hundred hours of painting time into each piece I do. The painting behind me, the Lowenbrau 962, took me 220 hours to paint.

I love what I do. It was definitely a labor of love. The most recent painting I produced, the 48 GT3 at Daytona with the grandstands in the background, I don’t even know how many hours it took me because that one was a bit of experimenting. Doing those seats, the background alone probably Took me at least 115, 120 hours.

It was a lot of work, but I do put a lot of love into my pieces. Generally speaking, you could bet on me putting around 115, 120 hours into it. [00:13:00] Just a normal commission.

Crew Chief Eric: So you probably walk away from it, come back, work on something else. You’re not just devoting 120 hours to that one piece, and then you do the next piece, and the next piece.

It

Samantha Zimmermann: depends. If I am working on a personal piece, I will do that. I’ll sit down, and I’ll put some time into it, and I’ll set it aside. If it’s a commission, I’ll usually put down whatever I’m working on, and I’ll devote all of my time to that piece until it’s complete, and then move on to the next one, or go back to the piece I was working on previously.

Executive Producer Tania: Are there any other future stages of car artwork? So you’re in the very realistic, photorealistic phase right now. Do you have any desires to do something different in the future?

Samantha Zimmermann: There’s definitely stuff I want to dabble into. So, I work in this super hyper realistic style with my portraits and with my car stuff.

And I also do this slightly more illustrative style that almost looks like a comic book. I have a piece that I did of the Martini Livery 935, or Moby Dick as it’s [00:14:00] more commonly known. That’s a bit more like a comic book style with like pen and ink and watercolor mixed into each other. There’s part of me that also wants to dabble in getting, I won’t say messier, but a little bit more abstract with it, but it’s extremely hard for me to break it down.

Like, my brain does not work that way. How Manu does it, how Chris does it, I could never do it. I’m so meticulous about everything I do. It has to be perfect.

Executive Producer Tania: Maybe one day you’ll get there. Just gotta let it go loose. Yeah,

Samantha Zimmermann: maybe when I’m in my 60s and I just don’t care anymore.

Crew Chief Eric: We all strive to hit that point in our lives.

Executive Producer Tania: So, we’re captivated by your seemingly sweeping romance with your then sweetheart taking you to your first Rolex 24 sports car race, now he’s your husband, right? Was that the moment that kind of it all clicked that the art was going to be cars, [00:15:00] or was there some other moment where that all came together for you?

Samantha Zimmermann: Michael, my husband, he drives. Not as often as he’d like to. He’s working on his car right now, but he always was a carter. So he did, um, shifter carts over in Germany. That’s where he’s from. So he was national shifter cart champion twice, and he did testing for Formula Renault. He came over and I kind of fell away from the car thing.

I mean, I grew up watching F1 with my dad, but I sort of got into the horse stuff and I was like, yeah, cars, whatever we’re going to deal with the horses. So he took me to Daytona for Rolex. The entire atmosphere there is just. So energetic and so exciting. And somebody said to me perfectly what it is about racing.

That’s so unique is you can’t write a script for it. You never know what’s going to happen. That’s what makes it so exhilarating. So to speak after experiencing that for the first time, and then the [00:16:00] community that surrounds racing and the support of just race fans in general, I don’t think. comparable to any other sport.

I mean, if you look at Daytona, it’s a bunch of guys and a bunch of teams beating the crap out of a car for 24 hours as hard as they can to be able to come in first. There’s unexpected things that happen, but there’s a lot of really cool Cinderella stories that happen as well. More specifically, Historic’s pretty much regulars at this point to HSR events and HSR Daytona’s coming up.

Looking at how cars were built then as opposed to now is just mind boggling to see the evolution of how far we’ve come and how the innovation began and it’s continuing to progress in sports car racing. There’s nothing compared to being able to stand trackside, having your eardrums blasted by the RSRs going by, or the Corvettes for that [00:17:00] matter, they’re so loud.

But to be able to capture that and put it on canvas is what I really wanted to go for, because you don’t get that excitement from pretty much anything else.

Executive Producer Tania: Very true. So, uh, what is Michael working on in the garage?

Samantha Zimmermann: He originally had a 964 that was converted to a full track car, and he sold that. Now, he has a Diazio, which is a kit car made by Fabric, and it has a Hayabusa motor in it, actually.

It’s like a three quarter scale 962, is what it looks like. Sort of like a Radical. Almost, yes, but it’s a closed cockpit as opposed to a Radical. It’s pretty cool. I have some pictures of it on my Instagram, if I’m not mistaken, but I think he’s going to end up doing the shell livery on it, which I’m pretty stoked about.

Crew Chief Eric: I’m partial to Alitalia liveries, you know, just saying, but, but that actually brings us right back into your artwork because that’s a very 70s thing, you know, like the Audi [00:18:00] sport stuff, the Momo 935 behind me, the Lohenbrau 962 behind you, things like that. And so, You said something really important. You went to Daytona in 2012 and you were talking about how the cars before that time were just mind blowing in terms of their engineering and their design and things like that.

And I agree with you 100%. If you look at the different decades of vehicles, especially in racing outside of the street cars, they’re so wildly different. They change drastically. But then when you went to Rolex, they kind of stayed the same for a while. It’s the same kind of cars now as it was then. So what took you to the seventies into the eighties, to the heyday of Can-Am Camel GT TransAm, IM ssa.

You know, there were so many different sanctioning bodies at that time that hadn’t gotten all together yet. Why the seventies in the eighties?

Samantha Zimmermann: I am super partial to that because those are your glory days of racing, so to speak. If you ever get a chance to sit down and talk with Derek Bell [00:19:00] about his time driving the nine 17, it’s basically like driving.

Lawn furniture around super ridiculously lightweight cage that wasn’t meant to do anything but cut weight and it’s super funny listening to him talk about it, but I think at that point there was so much more room for creativity and ingenuity and we didn’t understand as much about aerodynamics at that point as we do now, whereas everything is Pretty much super uniform because we have such a better understanding of how all of that works on top of that.

We didn’t have as many regulations for what racing is allowed to be like fuel consumption and things along those lines. A lot of things are going hybrid now, which is fine, but racing is racing. For a reason, I understand the need for developing cleaner energy and things to that regard. But I think at that point, there was still freedom [00:20:00] to be able to try and create a car and dabble in those gray areas and try to find any way to get a 10th off of a lap or more than that.

Crew Chief Eric: I think it goes hand in hand with your art. It’s freedom of expression, right? You’re allowing the engineers. The drivers to push the envelope, and it gets right at the heart of something we’ve talked about throughout this entire season in sports car racing, which is clearly defined as balance of power, right?

Where they’re trying to really make for good television by keeping cars super close. I’ve said it before, if in reality, if you want to go build a 6 wheeled Tyrrell. Go get it. Who cares?

Samantha Zimmermann: That’s what I was going to say. I was like, I know that six weird TRL is going to come up at some point. Oh my gosh. It’s so cool.

And you just don’t see stuff like that anymore. When you’re looking at racing now, I feel like we’re just on the cusp of getting back into a second golden era of racing with new LMDH program coming in. I’m really excited to see what ends up happening [00:21:00] with these cars. It’s an interesting trickle down effect.

If you’re looking at testing on our cars, road cars, it stems from, I feel, what we’re doing with cars on the track. So there are a handful of companies now that are really looking into hydrogen power, which I think is super interesting and it could make for a really cool outcome. But furthermore, I think we’re allowing for a little bit more ingenuity nowadays in this class, as opposed to what we’ve had for, what, the last 10 years.

So I’m hoping we’ll have some better racing and I’m hoping that we’ll be able to see a little bit more creativity coming up in this next generation of racing that we’re having

Crew Chief Eric: from the design and art perspective. I mean, let’s take away, there’s only one design that cheats the wind. Deliveries were a lot different in the seventies and eighties too.

You had a lot more petroleum companies, obviously tobacco companies, beer companies like Lohenbraun, you just don’t see that anymore. I mean. I’m trying to think of liveries that really stand out in me right now. I’m thinking maybe like Michelle Abate’s Ghost [00:22:00] Trans Am Mustang, because it’s just so in your face, you don’t see liveries like that anymore.

They’re all just kind of just blend together like NASCARs do, you know?

Samantha Zimmermann: I am so tired of red, white, and blue and black. I am so bored. One of my favorites right now is Samantha Tan’s BMW.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s gorgeous.

Samantha Zimmermann: Like Van Gogh. So I’ve been super happy with that one, but I’ve been saying this. We need a revival in color.

I’m so tired of seeing boring color other than the Wins. Wins has been pretty good at sticking to their guns with their purple. I’m stoked on that. Even their 962 looks great running around the track. It’s one of my favorites. I’m ready to see some more color and liveries on track this year, or hopefully next.

Sometime in the near future, anything would be good at this point. We should bring back alien or valiant or however you pronounce it on the 935 that green is to die for. Honestly, it’s one of my

Crew Chief Eric: go to 100 percent 100 percent I agree. And, [00:23:00] you know, speaking of the heyday of racing, too, there were so many names that still linger that we talk about all the time from that period.

I mean, we had Lindsay James on the show, Randy linear, any pilgrim, you know, and so on down the line. There’s just so many people from that time period that it’s just like what a phenomenal time to have been in racing. The cars were amazing. The drivers were fantastic. Not saying that the drivers of today aren’t great, but it’s just to your point, those stories, it all goes hand in hand.

And hopefully you’re right. Hopefully 23 brings us. That revival, because coming to the big stage at Le Mans, you’ve got almost everybody’s petition to car between Peugeot, BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, Cadillac, and so on down the lines. It’s like, holy smokes, like move over Toyota. You’re not going to win Le Mans by default.

Samantha Zimmermann: Even still, racing back then was just so much different than it is nowadays. Have you seen the movie Rush? Mm hmm. Okay, there’s some aspects of what Hemsworth says as he’s portraying Hunt where he says, I [00:24:00] think women like racing drivers because they’re so close to death and they’re the most alive. It’s true in some regard.

I definitely think that the safety was not where it is nowadays, but I think the atmosphere was just so much different. Regulations and things along those lines were, again, just so much more lax. Opportunity for so much more like tinkering here and there.

Executive Producer Tania: It was a send it atmosphere because people didn’t know any better.

Samantha Zimmermann: Exactly. I’m hoping we’re getting into this next golden era because recently I’ve seen this renewed interest, not only in. Reengineering how we’re putting cars together and whatnot, but in the arts, in the automotive industry. So I’m hoping that original liveries will be making a comeback or new colorful liveries will be making a comeback.

Even as recent as Pebble Beach, if you looked at every manufacturer that was out there, they were working with an artist who was there working live. With them at their [00:25:00] booths or whatnot like I know Lamborghini have one I know Porsche at their little booth that they had out there had four or five different artists that they were working with drawing on the cars.

It was really cool. So I’m really hoping that this is going to be sparking a renewed interest. in the arts and cars and bringing back fun liveries and things along those even memorabilia to that regard like posters and all that jazz we don’t see as much of that anymore as we used to we

Executive Producer Tania: need to put the a in stem and get steam more front and center science tech engineering art in there along with mathematics

Crew Chief Eric: Absolutely.

Executive Producer Tania: Absolutely.

Crew Chief Eric: And right along with that, I took my daughter to her first big sports car race and she fell in love with the Lamborghini Huracan that’s part of Flying Lizard known as Sparkle Farts. It’s that pink unicorn. It’s a bright, you know, just ostentatious livery. But she’s immediately like, Oh my God, I took her over to meet Andy Lee and some of the crew.

And now she’s a fan. [00:26:00] She’s like, when’s the next flooding lizard race? Where are they going to be? What are they doing? And you know, that’s the thing to your point, these striking liveries, that’s how you engage the young people too, because it catches their eye and the red whites and blues and the blacks, they just fade into the background.

Samantha Zimmermann: Even if you look at the iron Danes in Europe, their bright pink Ferrari that they do, their 488 is incredible. And they’ve been killing it all season. It’s like you’re saying, it’s super important to engage a younger audience because especially with HSR and historic sports car racing, not many people know about it.

I feel like the attendance has been better in the past than it is currently, but I think it’s so important to engage younger folks and getting them in. interested in that event because that’s where it all stemmed from where everything that we’re at currently has evolved from. And it’s super cool to see the history on track and it won’t be like that

Crew Chief Eric: forever.

You mentioned at the beginning that you come by your affinity for Porsche, honestly, through your grandparents and growing up around 914s and [00:27:00] 944s and the Porsche club, et cetera. But there’s also some hints. In your collections on your website to the Audi side of, you know, Porsche, Audi, and VW. And what got me was the portrait of Walter Rural.

And I said, man, where are the Group B cars? Because if you’re focused on the seventies and eighties, we got to see some Audi Quattros and some Michel Mouton and, you know, Peugeots and Renaults and everything else. So is that next too?

Samantha Zimmermann: So I have a series in mind. If you notice, they’ve drawn a lot of guys. I have a whole series of women in motorsports that I’d like to do as well, including Michelle, including Sabine, the ladies from the Iron Dames, Lynn St.

James. There’s a whole shlew of them that I’d love to get involved with. I actually just did one of Deborah Gregg and not many people know her story and it’s a little sad and she got a little bit of flack. But she was really pivotal in helping keeping Brumos Racing alive [00:28:00] after the death of Peter Craig.

I’ll be excited to share that one soon. I can’t quite share it yet, but you know that I definitely have plans to get into some of the ladies on the motorsport side of things, as well as more cars. Walter actually said he would sign that for me whenever we get around to I’m hoping we’ll make it back over to Germany at some point and run into him at an event and get him to sign it for me.

That’d be super cool.

Executive Producer Tania: All right. So earlier we were talking about Michael and what he’s working on in the garage and you mentioned he was. Shifter kart champion and testing for Renault. He’s clearly into part of the racing community and you’ve already listed off different races you’ve been to and this, that, and the other places you’re planning to go.

So clearly you’re spending time around the paddocks. What is your favorite track so far? Did you have been to most picturesque taking it from the art perspective?

Samantha Zimmermann: There’s two tracks that come to mind. [00:29:00] Road Atlanta is absolutely stunning with the S’s. Second of all, who can say. What’s more beautiful than the corkscrew at Laguna Seca.

It’s absolutely gorgeous. You get a lot of really cool images off of there. With the Velocity Imitational, I’ve seen a lot of stuff and I’m like, oh man, I’m gonna have to cram it in and paint that because it’s gorgeous. There’s a lot of really, really beautiful pieces or photos that come from Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta.

Those are two of my favorite tracks, for sure.

Executive Producer Tania: Have you gone to many tracks in Europe at all?

Samantha Zimmermann: We’ve been to the Nürburgring. That’s the only one that I’ve been to personally. When we went back over a few years ago, we were hoping to be able to get on track, but they were doing qualifying for the 24 hour Nürburgring.

So, we just got to sit outside and listen. To all the gloriousness beating around the ring, but we didn’t get to go on it last time around, unfortunately.

Executive Producer Tania: So do you have [00:30:00] a track in mind anywhere in the world that you’d want to go or paint?

Samantha Zimmermann: Funny enough, I’d really like to do a piece from the Monaco Grand Prix.

Executive Producer Tania: That’d be cool.

Samantha Zimmermann: Historically speaking, it’s a very rich track, and there’s a lot of really cool stuff in the background. A lot of buildings. Unfortunately,

Crew Chief Eric: I want to take that to the next level. It needs to be the Monaco rally along the hillside, you know, one lane roads, I’m a little partial to rally. I’m just saying,

Samantha Zimmermann: no, I wouldn’t have known at all.

I’d like to do a piece from Road Atlanta. I haven’t gotten to do one from there yet.

Crew Chief Eric: You know, I hear V. I. R. is really pretty.

Samantha Zimmermann: V. I. R. is very pretty. Michael used to go kart there a lot.

Executive Producer Tania: You’ll have to paint the oak tree in though.

Samantha Zimmermann: That’s right, absolutely. Listen, the oak tree is not a fun time for anybody that’s had to meet it face to face, unfortunately.

Oh

Crew Chief Eric: man. But you could totally Bob Ross that thing in. I mean, it’ll be happy little oak tree. It’ll be amazing.

Samantha Zimmermann: I have plenty of reference in the front [00:31:00] yard. I mean, you know, we’ll just slap it in there. It’s no big deal.

Executive Producer Tania: You got this. You got this.

Samantha Zimmermann: I think spa would be cool too. Spa would be a fun track to paint.

Executive Producer Tania: There’s a whole bunch of them. This could go on. He’d be very busy if you were just hitting every different track. Adjacent question. So Michael’s into racing. How about you? Have you ever gotten behind the wheel? Maybe just done a high performance driving weekend or anything? Do you want to? If you haven’t

Samantha Zimmermann: So, I had this bet.

I wouldn’t say a bet, we had a deal. He said if he got on a horse, I would have to get into the race car with him. Okay, that’s never gonna happen, but whatever. He gets on the horse, he gets off. He says, you know what this means, right? Like, What? You’re gonna have to get in the race car with me. I’m like, okay, whatever.

Didn’t really think anything of it at the time. Down here in Florida, we have a little track called The Firm. He had a little [00:32:00] BMW Z3 coupe, so clown shoe. KW’s on! He redid every single bushing known to man with polyurethane, so it was literally, like, on rails. It was so stiff, it was not even funny. He takes it to the firm, he looks at me, he’s like, Remember when I got on that horse?

I was like, Oh no. Let me just say, I’m not a great passenger, alright? So I get in the car with him, and he’s just doing, like, call it a parade lap or whatever, just to get the lay of the land with everybody, and I’m already sitting there like, Oh god, okay, here we go. Comes back in, I grab a helmet, get in the car with him.

He’s like, alright, you ready? I’m like, I guess. So he takes me out, and I’m trying to film him. I’m just screaming internally, like, oh my god, it was Seriously, one of the most experiences of my life. Make it stop! Colin, who’s pretty well seasoned in that, gets in the [00:33:00] car with him, he comes back in and he’s just like, I’m not getting in the car with him again.

It takes a lot to make me nervous, but my god, he hits those brakes so late going into those turns. Granted, the whole time it was fine. According to him, I have a lead foot when I’m driving, so it’s a different story. The roles are reversed, but we both karting together. I’ve got a little low 206 kart that he got me into, and he’s got his shifter kart.

That’s a 175cc, I believe. But funny enough, it used to be Sebastian Bourdais.

Crew Chief Eric: It’s a small community, right?

Samantha Zimmermann: He’s down here for the Kart for Kids event that they put on right around the same time as the St. Pete Grand Prix. But it seems like it’s a small world, especially when you niche down even more into karting in cars.

Executive Producer Tania: All right, so we would be remiss if we didn’t have some Pit Stop questions for you and you being an artist, we will make them a little bit more specific this time. [00:34:00] What car posters were on your wall as a kid? Did you have any or maybe they were horses

Samantha Zimmermann: as a kid? I did not have any. It was just horses and more horses and motivational quotes, like hang on with the little cat on the branch or whatever.

But you could essentially say that now I do. So I have all my artwork that I have hanging up and I have a bunch of old. 80s Porsche advertisement posters upstairs that are pretty cool that are original to the period. So I just decorate my walls at this point how I would have when I was younger. So it’s just a bunch of horses and it’s a bunch of race cars.

Very nice.

Crew Chief Eric: Which begs the question, what’s the best

Samantha Zimmermann: livery? That’s a great question. So I would arguably say

Crew Chief Eric: Jägermeister.

Samantha Zimmermann: Bright orange, but you gotta give me a little bit more than just orange. I would say the Valiant, so on the K3 [00:35:00] 935, one of the reasons I painted it, because I love it. Between that one, Lohenbrau, and then your Classic Wins.

I love those three. They’re my favorites. They’re really, really good.

Executive Producer Tania: Sexiest car of all time or cars?

Crew Chief Eric: Most beautiful in the eyes of an artist.

Samantha Zimmermann: Okay. I really enjoy the look of a 356 Speedster. It’s beautiful. Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing. Absolutely beautiful car. DB5. Very classic looking, very chic, you can’t go wrong with it.

Styling from that time was just, it was all about beauty and function.

Crew Chief Eric: So the opposite of that question is obviously, what is the ugliest car of all time? But is there such a thing for an artist? Because you guys find beauty in everything, right?

Samantha Zimmermann: There’s nothing beautiful about a Pontiac Aztec. Yes! I knew it!

It’s so bad! Like, what were we doing? We just took some clay [00:36:00] and slapped it around and we’re like, yeah, it’s great. End of the day.

Crew Chief Eric: Oh, the poor Aztec.

Samantha Zimmermann: It’s just like nothing you could do to it to like soften it up at all.

Crew Chief Eric: Talk a lot about colors, right? You talk about these liveries and how you’re tired of red, white, blue, and blacks.

So, What is the best color combination for a vehicle? Is black the most beautiful? Depends

Samantha Zimmermann: on the black. I do like painting black a lot because there’s a lot of really interesting reflections you can get out of it that you don’t get out of some other colors. I really like Green so take for instance British Racing Green on Cognac.

I really like that combo. It feels Very rich to me and the two tones work really well together. On top of that if you do blue either with Uh, light gray interior. I like that a lot as well. I think that’s a really nice combination. So kind of like the Sally special that Portia just [00:37:00] came out with. Nice.

Good reference.

Crew Chief Eric: There’s a lot of famous car designers out there. Some are better known than others, right? You could say Pininfarina. You could say Bertone. Tanya and I are extremely partial to Giugiaro. So that brings up the question, do you have a favorite design house or designer or a brand that you gravitate to that isn’t Porsche?

Samantha Zimmermann: Well, I’m wearing a 962 shirt and I have Porsche earrings. If I were to pick another brand, I do really like Aston. I like Aston a lot. I think that they’re very classically beautiful, as well as even classic Mercedes. I think a lot of them are very nice as well. Partial to Aston as well, because I really like James Bond, but that’s a story for another time.

Executive Producer Tania: So are you still an F1 fan?

Samantha Zimmermann: I am. Yes, I will say. Modern F1, ever since Drive to Survive has come in, has become a bit more [00:38:00] dramatic, I suppose, or almost feels a bit scripted at times.

Executive Producer Tania: Getting too soap opery? It’s turned

Crew Chief Eric: into WWE.

Samantha Zimmermann: No, that’s what monster trucks are. It’s WWE, done with, like, big tire trucks everywhere.

Executive Producer Tania: The real question is, who do you think the GOAT is? In Formula One, across time.

Samantha Zimmermann: I’m gonna get a bunch of flack for this, probably, but regardless of what your thoughts are on him, I do really like Lewis. I think that he’s been very successful. I also really enjoy the prospect of Mick coming up through the ranks.

Albeit, has, has some Not so nice words to say about Nick saying he’s very offensive. I’m like, yeah, we’re getting attention when Mazepin was driving for you, but I digress, you know,

Executive Producer Tania: that was fine because his daddy was paying the checks.

Samantha Zimmermann: Yeah, exactly. Exactly Historically, I would say [00:39:00] between Schumacher and Senna for sure Those two I feel like are the creme de la creme for that.

Executive Producer Tania: For people interested, please go on her website, samanthazimmermanart. com. Go to the gallery and there is a gorgeous painting of Ayrton Senna. Thank you. Just, just stare at it for a while because it’s just like, sucks you in. It’s very nice.

Samantha Zimmermann: There’s a really interesting story behind that photo actually. If you watch the Schumacher documentary, you’ll hear about it, but Schumacher and Senna had gotten into a tussle on track, and he had taken Senna out.

Senna was looking at the track, like, mulling things over afterwards, a bit heated. To be understood, but, you know,

Crew Chief Eric: that was every weekend with him and Alan Prost. So, you know, it’s all good.

Samantha Zimmermann: Oh, my God. Bless. Yeah.

Executive Producer Tania: And if you haven’t seen the Senate documentary, definitely see that that is quite good.

Crew Chief Eric: All right.

[00:40:00] Our last and final pit stop question. This is the most important one. And please think carefully before answering

Executive Producer Tania: the answer. A split second. I could be wrong.

Crew Chief Eric: You’re the last one in the design room and your vote counts to settle a tie. A debate between which car is going to be released. The venerable technology filled Porsche 959 or the hot under the collar passionate Ferrari F40.

Which do you choose?

Samantha Zimmermann: Oh man, this is a hot button topic for sure. Having sat in an F40. They’re beautiful. I adore them. I have not sat in a 959. Man, this is a real toss up. You threw me for a loop here. Oh my God.

Executive Producer Tania: I thought she’d answer easy.

Samantha Zimmermann: No, you didn’t say anything about the Enzo though. Granted, I know they’re not quite the same era.

Crew Chief Eric: She’s looking for an out. Oh, the [00:41:00] Enzo look over here.

Samantha Zimmermann: Yeah, I don’t know, man. There’s something about German engineering for me. The 959.

Executive Producer Tania: Knew it. I knew it.

Crew Chief Eric: Alright, that’s fair. That’s fair. You’re a Porsche gal through and through. I appreciate that. I can understand. I will say, you are in a very small club of people that choose the 959, though.

Samantha Zimmermann: The 959. I’ve seen one in person. They’re absolutely lovely. I’ve heard one go around the track. Absolutely phenomenal. Both of them are great cars. I mean, that’s like your classic poster that would be on any kid’s room in the nineties, right?

Crew Chief Eric: So many people say it’s true of racing as well as in your career and many other careers that failures breed successes.

And earlier you talked about that 993 that reminds you all the time of how far you’ve come on your journey. Are there still some projects that you look back on and go, man, the juice really wasn’t worth the squeeze or something that’s been sitting to the side that you never finished, you know, [00:42:00] that you’re going to get around to it.

Talk about. Advice for other starving artists, or let’s call them aspiring artists. What would that be? Lessons you’ve learned, some things you can tell them to help them get over that block.

Samantha Zimmermann: There’s a really good book written by Lisa Congdon that talks about being an artist, and the artistic process is like the shape of a U.

At the beginning, on this side, on the thumb, you start and You’re really excited because you’re starting a new piece and it’s going to go awesome. And then you start to travel down the U to what she calls the ugly pit of despair, where you’re like, this is hot garbage and it’s not going great at all. And that’s kind of the point that most people, I feel like it’s stuck in.

I still get stuck in it where I’ll just be sitting and staring at my painting from across the room. I hate it, but if you keep working at it, even if it’s a little bit, like five minutes a day, that’s all you have to do. You start to work your way back up that [00:43:00] side of the U to where you’re finished, and that’s at your high point again.

You learn a lot along the way, especially with artwork and painting in particular. It’s a process and you just have to trust the process and you have to get through the part. It’s ugly phase before you get to the pretty phase. I have a couple pieces right now that are in their ugly phase that I haven’t been able to touch because I’m busy on commissions.

But if you just even work on it just a little bit a day, you’re going to end up learning something new. You’re going to end up figuring out how to do stuff faster the next time, what works and what doesn’t work. And you’re still going to end up with a great piece at the end of the day. It’s just a matter of pushing through that point of where it’s in its ugly phase.

Executive Producer Tania: So are there any artists that you look up to? I think you mentioned a few names earlier. I mean, are those some of your top ones? Are there others that you haven’t mentioned that are still inspiring your art today?

Samantha Zimmermann: Oh, yes. One of my favorite artists, who’s a very good friend of mine, is Kelly Telfer. I call [00:44:00] him like my art mentor because he’s helped me so much get from where I was when I was first starting to where I am now.

Super great guy, super talented, super super helpful with any and all questions you may have about art. Tim Laizell is another artist that I really enjoy. He does the poster artwork for the Pebble Beach Concord as well as I think he’s done it for Goodwood. Previously, he’s based in the UK, fabulous artist.

Ackwood, he’s based in Australia and he does a lot of really nice work as well. Those are probably my top three artists that I look up to and still get a lot of inspiration from. I feel like we see each other’s work and we all somehow push each other by seeing each other’s work to do better.

Executive Producer Tania: So, are you kind of like a lone wolf here?

You’ve rattled off a lot of different artists and they’re all men.

Samantha Zimmermann: Well, actually, I lied. I do have a couple other female artists that I do like. There’s this girl named Emma. She’s based in [00:45:00] the UK and she’s very good. Kate Cook, who’s in Texas, who’s awesome. Lynn Heiner is wonderful as well, but her work is a little bit different style.

She does like all palette knife stuff. As far as women in the automotive and motorsports art industry.

Executive Producer Tania: Which was more my particular question.

Samantha Zimmermann: Yeah, it’s definitely just like the fine art world. It’s a lot more geared towards men. There may be people that Disagree with that statement. That’s okay. But it is, and it always has been, that men have preference in the art world as opposed to women.

And when you get even more specific into automotive and motorsports art, or automotive and motorsports industries, it’s predominantly ruled by men. And that’s fine, that’s well and good. We’re seeing some shifts now, like IMSA does their program that they try and sponsor a female or a minority driver to come into the series, as well as the [00:46:00] women formula series that’s over in Europe.

Like I said earlier, I’ve mentioned them numerous times, the Iron Dames over in the European law series. It’s not as exclusive to men as it used to be, but there are definitely still remnants of that mentality that it’s a man’s world in that type of work. It’s super important that women and girls are also represented just as much as men that have the passion for it because it does exist.

There’s a ton of us that are out there, and I think it’s super important to bring awareness to the fact that not many people recognize that we also make the same quality work being in the subject matter that it is. For instance, Porsche Corporate published two articles recently within the last six months.

One was about digital artists to watch that are inspired by Porsche. And I looked through it, [00:47:00] it was all men, and I know most of them, it’s digital art. That’s fine. Okay. They did a second article recently, about two months ago, for traditional artists that are inspired by Portia. I looked through it. I know all of the artists on there.

Not a single woman. It’s all men. It’s just a little discouraging because there’s plenty of women out there that are equally as talented that deserve to be represented by Portia. I feel like it just added to the stigma that cars and fine art our man’s world. Left a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

We

Executive Producer Tania: need to break this stigma that cars are for boys. Cars are for anyone.

Crew Chief Eric: Couldn’t agree more. And I look at it for what it is. I don’t judge it based on who made it or what made it or how it was made. I mean, a car is an example, like the Lower Brown 962. It wasn’t one person that put that together. It was a team of people, men, women.

It’s just amazing what we can do when we put our heads together and buckle down to do [00:48:00] it. So to your point, I think we do need to highlight the people that are behind the scenes that aren’t being recognized in the same way and, you know, in total fairness. So that shift is coming and we’re seeing more of it.

And that’s why we have folks like yourself on this show to tell your story and to be able to share that with everybody.

Executive Producer Tania: So what we haven’t talked about is how does one go about acquiring some Samantha Zimmerman artwork?

Samantha Zimmermann: So for commissions, if you go to my website, you can hit a contact form and you can fill out all the information and send me an email with that.

Or you can send me an email directly. It’s samzimmermanart at gmail. com. If you’re looking at buying an original for me of my produce works, I have them all listed on my website as well. I do have prints of the majority of my work. Just get in touch with me and I’m more than happy to assist from there.

Crew Chief Eric: And there’s a store coming soon, right? On the website it says.

Samantha Zimmermann: Yeah, for sure. So there’s a store coming. It’s just a matter of technologically setting everything up to get it [00:49:00] sorted out to make it easier for everybody to buy prints and originals and things to that effect. But if you have any inquiries about things that I’ve listed on the website or prints, anything to that effect, like I said, you’re welcome to get in touch with me.

I’m more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Executive Producer Tania: So you alluded to earlier about having more women in the motorsports and cars as a theme in your artwork, or is there any other big projects you want to share or can reveal, you know, hashtag spoiler alert to anyone?

Samantha Zimmermann: So I have a project I’ve been working on with an author named Sean Cridland.

Who wrote the history of Brumos Racing. It’s a group of artists, myself included, that are working on some pieces for him that will be auctioned off for charity. That’s about as much as I can reveal on that. But I do also have some interesting things in the works coming up for this year. Maybe with Target 66, maybe with the Amelia Island Concord, [00:50:00] possibly you could see me at Rensport Reunion and some other events in California this year coming up.

Very nice.

Crew Chief Eric: Very cool. Well, with that said, Samantha, any shout outs, promotions, or anything else you’d like to share that we haven’t covered thus far?

Samantha Zimmermann: Well, in the future, I’d really love to be able to set up a scholarship foundation or something along those lines or a parody foundation that helps girls and women get into the industry, even if it’s art or if it’s something along the mechanical lines.

That’s a goal of mine to be able to provide that in the future to have that as a sort of scholarship fund for people looking to get into the industry. Thank you to my wonderful husband, Michael, who supports me in my insanity with my artwork that it is and Kelly for helping lead me along the way and all of my wonderful friends and family and followers that have come along on this journey of motor sports artwork from the very beginnings to what it is now.

Executive Producer Tania: [00:51:00] Samantha’s art influences consist of a mixed group of prominent renaissance baroque and classic masters, along with 20th and 21st century pop impressionists and realism artists that inspire and aid her in her artistic style. She brings to life through oil and graphite mediums, a near photorealistic scene from the motorsports world.

Truly breathtaking pieces that you can see, admire and possibly purchase through her website, www.samanthazimmermanart.com. You can also follow the progress of her next pieces by following her on social at Samantha Zimmerman Arts on Facebook and at Zimmy Arts on Instagram, or look her up on LinkedIn too.

Crew Chief Eric: Well, Samantha, I cannot thank you enough for coming on break fix and sharing your story with everyone out there. And I’m hoping that if there are other inspiring artists that are listening to this right now that they go check out your work and see the kinds of things you’re putting out there because they are absolutely amazing.

And they do capture. [00:52:00] As you said, that golden age in motorsports and seeing the pictures, I really feel and I sense your love and your passion, especially for Porsches and Audis through the work, but also for the motorsports community at large. And that’s something that it’s very hard to replicate. And I appreciate you doing this for all of us, being able to show us this part of the world in such a really awesome way.

Samantha Zimmermann: Well, thank you. Thank you very much for the kind words. I, um, certainly aspire to be able to transport my viewers to feel like they’re their track side again without physically being there. Even more with the golden era of motorsports, just because. It’s going to be too expensive eventually to run some of the cars on tracks, so trying to capture the memory and put it right there.

Well, I really appreciate you having me on and taking some time to sit down and talk about cars and art, and it’s been great talking to you guys. That

Executive Producer Tania: was great.

Crew Chief Brad: If you like what [00:53:00] you’ve heard and want to learn more about GTM, be sure to check us out on www. gtmotorsports. org. You can also find us on Instagram at GrandTouringMotorsports. Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call or text us at 202 630 1770, or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.

org. We’d love to hear from you.

Crew Chief Eric: Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here. We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted to remind you that GTM remains a no annual fees organization. And our goal is to continue to bring you quality episodes like this one at no charge. As a loyal listener, please consider subscribing to our Patreon for bonus and behind the scenes content, extra goodies, and GTM swag.

For as little as 2. 50 a month, you can keep our developers, writers, editors, casters, and other volunteers fed on their strict diet of fig newtons, gummy bears, and monster. [00:54:00] Consider signing up for Patreon today at www. patreon. com forward slash GT Motorsports. And remember, without fans, supporters, and members like you, none of this would be possible.

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Introduction to Break/Fix Podcast
• 00:27 Samantha Zimmermann’s Early Life and Passion for Cars
• 02:20 Journey into Art and Motorsports
• 04:13 University Experience and Artistic Development
• 06:21 Challenges and Techniques in Automotive Art
• 14:43 The Influence of Racing on Art
• 26:52 Future Projects and Inspirations
• 29:59 Dream Tracks to Paint
• 31:17 Racing Experiences and Bet Fulfillment
• 33:48 Pit Stop Questions: Childhood Posters and Favorite Liveries
• 35:11 Most Beautiful and Ugliest Cars
• 36:18 Favorite Color Combinations and Design Houses
• 37:49 Thoughts on Modern F1 and the Greatest of All Time
• 41:37 Artistic Process and Advice for Aspiring Artists
• 43:44 Inspiration and Mentorship in Art
• 45:10 Women in Automotive and Motorsports Art
• 48:17 How to Acquire Samantha Zimmermann’s Artwork
• 49:16 Future Projects and Final Thoughts

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