So, at the first day of the Frank Marratta Car show in Hartford CT, it was planned to reveal the all new personality for the 1934 black coupe, now known as the Devil’s Ride. It was placed as a welcoming piece, on a 20 foot ro- tating mirrored floor by the entrance of the show. Looking like a dark, ominous, brilliant diamond, it turned slowly for the crowd to ad- mire. Not only was the public impressed with the

car’s new look, but also with the creator of the vehicle, Kevin Care of Planet Hotrod in Bran- ford CT. Immediately his wheels began to turn, and he thought of putting me in contact with the owner of his latest creation, Mike Katz (costar of the 1977 movie PUMPING IRON). He thought maybe I could come up with some artwork for his show car as well. WOW, a celebrity owned vehicle I thought, this would be a nice addi- tion to my rapidly growing portfolio. When Mike Katz arrived at the show and saw the artwork on the Devil’s Ride, he was immediately impressed. He explained that the car he was hav- ing built would be unveiled by himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, (The Incredible Hulk) and Franco Columbu, as a tribute to the movie that had launched their careers back in 1977. The unveiling of the car would be held at the Arnold Classics in Columbus, Ohio with an estimated 40,000 people attending the event. Mike has always been a hot rod enthusi- ast and thought this would be a great canvas for the portrayal of the movie. He began to explain what he had in mind for the finishing touches of the 1932 ford highboy. He had explained how the center caps of the rims were to have each one of the main characters in the movies nickname on it, like “ Big Lou” for Lou Ferrigno, and “Big Mike “ for himself, and so on. He also explained how, because of Arnold’s involvement with the project, that the engine was one of the first high performance alternative fuel engines and ran on ethanol.

Mike Katz being interviewed at the Arnold Classics event Feb. 2009

Once he had explained all of the interesting details that he had envisioned for the movie masterpiece, he then told me he would like me to paint the Pumping Iron lettering on the hood of the car about 2 ½ inches high and about 15 or so inches long, right along each side of the hoods edges. I welcomed the idea and said, “Sure thing, and what else?” He replied, “Nothing else, just that.” I was astounded! This car would be seen by thousands of people and have the largest lime light I have ever seen - with 21 years of airbrushing experi- ence, could he really only want me to produce something that anyone with a plotter (letter cutting machine) and the most basic knowledge of an airbrush could do? I started to wonder if he was joking. I replied, “That’s all you want on here to rep- resent the movie? He replied, “Well yes. I want to keep it nos- talgic.” He then began to explain, “Now, don’t get me wrong, I love what you have done to your Ice Car, but artwork all over this car would just look wrong and kind of gaudy.” I agreed that it could potentially do that, but that the lettering on the hood wouldn’t represent the movie the way airbrushing could. He then replied, “Well, what do you have for ideas?” At this point I figured I might want to keep my ideas on the conservative side, considering that he thought it might not do the vehicle justice at all. As my own wheels began to turn, I explained how portraits of the 4 of them on the back truck lid in a monochro- matic color scheme would look nice and still keep it tasteful and classy. He could envision that (since they had all changed quite a bit since those days) and he began to explain that it may look like the Mt. Rushmore of body building. We both lit up with excitement of what that would do to the car. And with portraits being (in my opinion) the hardest subject matter to do with an airbrush, I was happy to be able to show the world my skills. Within about an hour or so, Mike Katz, Kevin Care (the car builder), Archie Deflorio (the owner of the Devil’s Ride) and a few of the guys from Kevin’s shop approached me and ex- plained that they were able to show Mike my website and he was now more aware of my skills and the quality of my work. 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  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36