How did the jump from fine art to painting motorcycles happen, how and why?
Wow. That’s a long one. Short version goes like this. Girl learns to airbrush, sort of. Girl fudges her way through interview, gets hired and actually goes to Gurney, IL, to shoot shirts at Great America. Girl learns to airbrush FOR REAL while there. Girl goes back to school to do “respectable fine art”. Girl runs own Christ- mas booth at local mall with boy from art class. Girl gets dis- gusted with “respectable art” attitude and drops out of school with boy from art class. Girl moves to Minneapolis with boy and works a summer at Valley Fair doing more shirts. Summer ends and girl goes broke. Girl takes job in seedy detail shop airbrush- ing on lowriders and bikes with 1 Shot for several months. Girl never gets paid. Girl gets a “real job” in circuit boards, but finds a high end auto restoration shop in the suburbs to paint at on her days off. Girl learns the finer points of automotive mural painting, gets to work for high end clients, and realizes that some day she could maybe have her own shop. Girl moves to California to work as an engineer in Silicon Valley and doesn’t do much airbrushing for a few years. Girl gets hitched and moves to Ohio and FINALLY gets to open her shop full time to paint people’s rides. (Yeah, that’s the short version.) Once I knew how it felt when a client flips out to see his custom artwork for the first time on his prized motorcycle, and once I saw how happy I can make him and how proud he can be of his idea actually on his bike, I knew that for me, there was no going back to the concept of quiet galleries and paintings simply for art’s sake. I’m 100% addicted to the emotional response. What can possibly be better than getting paid to make someone’s personal visions come true?
What if any artists have influenced you, your style of painting? Robert Bateman, big time. Also Salvador Dali, with his hard edged, rich colored surrealism. I also love the contrast and drama of Ansel Adams and Simon Bisley. And of course, there are so many excellent airbrush artists, but Vince Goodeve is probably my favorite.
If you where granted three wish’s as far as your artistic career goes what would your wishes be?
Other than the knee-jerk answer of fame, fortune and fun, I would have to say primarily to never stop improving my skills and learning new things. Ya might as well get busy decompos- ing once you’ve stopped doing that. #2 would be to always have the time and opportunity to do the projects I really want to do, big or small. (Okay, so 20 seconds on a show with Foose or the Tuttles would be unbelievably cool.) #3 to share my knowledge by teaching the next generation of gunslingers. Part time col- lege instructor would be a dream-come-true, with classes at the shop for working folks on the weekends and evenings. Besides, it would be nice to retire my little biz to an apprentice some day.
What advice do you have for those just starting out in airbrush-
ing? PRACTICE~PATIENCE~PERSEVERENCE!
~ There’s no physical way to practice too much. If I hadn’t had to learn to swim by launching myself from the boat, I wouldn’t be able to airbrush even half as well today. Do it in your sleep, if you have to. Take a class, buy some videos and books, sub- scribe to mags, even hang out at a local shirt shop. You can learn a lot from watching as well. Even if you want to do only fine art or customize racing bikes with your airbrush, you really ought to learn to do t-shirt lettering. Just about every skill you need to master the airbrush can be learned in lettering: fine lines, various strokes, soft fades, speed, distance adjustments, color blending... It’s all right there, to be absorbed and applied elsewhere. Then, once you can use the tool, you can focus on developing your own style.
~ Be patient. You’re not gonna learn overnight. The airbrush is a tricky tool. It can get so frustrating when what you’ve just slaved over doesn’t look anything like it was supposed to. That was a really hard part for me. I wanted instant perfection for everything I did.
~ No matter how frustrated you get, DON’T GIVE UP! I can’t count the number of times I wanted to just scoop up all my equipment and throw it in the dumpster. The only thing that kept me from doing it was the time and money I’d already in- vested. Many things will make you want to quit, and not just when you’re a beginner: unruly brushes, bad paint, impatient customers, no cash for supplies, disapproving family members, broken compressors, time or space constrictions, PMS... Man, you name it. If you really want it bad enough, though, you’ll find a way to work through it.
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