Adkins remembers a funny story about this photo: “(Wes) was Adkins. She introduced him to Wes who had already fallen in
always so broke and wouldn’t have gas money to get home so love with surfing or as he calls it “playing on waves. Bemo, also
he would often sleep on the shop floor. One payday, he bought a central California valley transplant, struck up a friendship
that white Levi suit (pictured) and painted it, and again for the with Wes who would become a popular surfboard artist, paint-
next two weeks he had no gas money to get home . . . but he ing boards for famous shapers like the legendary Skip Frye of
looked really good!” Gordon and Smith Surfboards and Steve Lis and John Holley of
Adkins had assembled a team of creative artists who took Seagull Surfboards in San Diego.
airbrushing to a new level. They invented unique templates; Back at the Airbrush Shop Wes’ work habits were a bit sketchy:
cut out shapes of art taped one on top of each other, which “Adkins fired me several times but kept hiring me back, prob-
allowed for creative and efficient t-shirt art production. The ably because she knew I was still a teenager (18 years old) and
shop’s trademark was painted wings in multiple pastel hues had a lot of talent.”
on the shoulders of their t-shirts. Wes fit in with the group like Eventually, Wes got homesick and moved back to Bakersfield
a complimentary color. and took his step-father’s advice and got a “real job” (in the
It was at the Airbrush Shop that Wes was introduced to surf- oilfields). But Wes says it was a big mistake: “that experience
board foam as a new canvas. Board shaper Barry “Bemo” was made it quite clear to me that I never wanted a so-called real
looking for someone to paint his surfboards and approached job ever again.”
Wes continued to airbrush, mostly seascapes some of which Victorian “ginger-bread” houses. But after three months of
he sold for $100 each . . . his mission was “to paint the perfect solid rain he headed south again.
wave”. Back in San Diego Wes found out that the Airbrush shop had
Eventually he left Bakersfield but this time he followed another closed. Always the survivor, Wes saw an ad from a sign shop
brother north to Eureka, Ca. where he was welcomed into a called “Fisk Design Studio”. Lyle Fisk, the famous hot rod pin-
hippy commune of vegetarians living striper, hired Wes on the spot and promise to teach him how
in a turn-of-century farm house called “The Funk Farm”. Wes
to paint signs.
found work in neighboring Ferndale, Ca. painting Queen Ann
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32