Harley owners get some color
Custom motorcycle painting, like their owners’ tattoos, is meaningful and colorful
Jim Brando’s artwork is a very personal tribute to bikers, but until this weekend he had never mixed the ashes of a deceased person into his palette of paints. Saturday, Brando and five other artists were handpainting all kinds of things — from shooting flames to portraits of pets — on motorcycles outside the Harley-Davidson Museum.
Bikers from California to Maine were in Milwaukee for a national Harley Owners Group rally that began Wednesday and was winding down Saturday. At the same time, local Harley dealerships were having the Milwaukee Rally 2017.
Much of the partying has taken place at the museum at S. 6th and W. Canal streets.
Inside the “Pinstripe Legends” tent, the artists were doing on-the-spot customizations — applying their paint to the bikes like a tattoo parlor would apply ink to flesh.
The requests were as varied as the people who made them, from veterans wanting a tribute to their country, to someone who just began a new relationship and wanted that person’s name tattooed on the bike.
“You never know what’s coming in the door,” Brando said, adding that many pinstripe requests are impulsive and that people who wait usually change their mind.
One of his assignments on Friday was to paint a memorial to a young man who had committed suicide. The man’s father had brought in some of his son’s ashes that were mixed into paint applied in a caricature on a bike.
In 45 years as an artist, Brando had never done anything quite like that. Others in the artists’ tent hadn’t, either. “It was very intense, very emotional,” said Christopher Stratman, a Pinstripe Legends artist from Racine.
Pinstripe Legends is a group of artists who take inspiration from many places, including the custom car and tattoo cultures that have become their own forms of self-expression. Members pay tribute to artists such as Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, who created the Rat Fink character in the 1960s.
Over a period of 16 years, the Legends have donated their considerable talents to raise about $600,000 for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin — largely through an annual art auction at the World of Wheels custom car show held in February.
Saturday, Legends members were working on motorcycles — daunting assignments given that some people spend thousands of dollars customizing their bike right down to the nuts and bolts that hold it together.
“They’re giving us their ‘baby’ to be tattooed. It is a little nerve-wracking,” Stratman said.
Some bikers have murals added to their helmets, saddlebags and leather jackets.
Names of girlfriends, boyfriends and spouses are popular subjects, although sometimes those are erased if the relationship ends.
“And if we make a mistake, we wipe it off and start over,” Stratman said.
Brando painted a portrait of a St. Bernard dog, named “Beethoven,” on a motorcycle fender on Saturday. It was a $250 job, about average for the day.
Brando, from Gurnee, Ill., has been an artist since he was 16. He’s traveled across the country doing free-hand lettering, pinstripe work and airbrush painting on motorcycles, cars, boats and just about anything else that paint can be applied to.
Brando does live painting at charity, business and personal events tailored to the theme of the party. Most tattoos, he said, can be copied from a person’s body to a car or bike.
He’s seen just about everything you could imagine painted on a motorcycle, but every day of his career brings something new.
“You have no idea, no clue what to expect,” Brando said.
Many people customize their bikes over a period of years or even decades if they keep them that long.
One woman has been coming back to the Pinstripe Legends every year for seven years. Her bike is almost out of room for any more artwork.
But don’t count on recovering your money when trading in or selling your customized bike, as the next owner might not appreciate the personal tattoo or weird design painted on the gas tank. Often, simple is better. “Tastes change. Things come and go. But things that are traditional just keep going,” Stratman said.