Custom artwork for Bluegrass Festival

Last year I met a client at Wide Open Bluegrass, a bluegrass festival in Raleigh NC. She runs a bluegrass festival in Maine and liked my work. When she asked about a custom piece, I told her I create them all the time. 

When she got in touch with me a few months ago, she was surprised I remembered our conversation. I've got a nack for remembering everything; just ask my wife. Some people's memory gets weaker as they age. Mine seems to get stronger LOL.

The end result to this story is the piece I will be shipping today for the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass festival. Thanks to Patti Crooker for working with me on this project.

'63 Corvette art for Corvette museum

The National Corvette museum contacted me in March after seeing this license plate art I created in 2014. The 3D picture shows a 1960 Corvette racing threw the mountains. They wanted to display the piece at their Inspired Tires art competition sponsored by Michelin tires this fall.

Unfortunately, I had to tell them that piece was sold at Ray Evernham's auction, which benefits IGNITE, a community center for young adults with Autism in Charlotte .

Undeterred, my contact asked if I would be interested in creating a new piece to be auctioned off at the conclusion of the Inspired Tires show. She suggested a piece that represents the 1963 Split Window Corvette because it's a a crowd favorite.

After doing my research I decided to go with the rear image of the iconic Corvette. I also wanted to take advantage of the highly reflective quality that license plates have. I knew that when the lights hit the piece, the flash back would illuminate the qualites that make the 63 split window America's favorite. 

Here are a few shots of the creation of the piece as it progressed in my studio. The first few have the lights on and the next sequence has the lights off to show those reflective qualities.

If you are interested in bidding on the piece, or would like a print please send me an email or give me a call at 516-376-6499.

Corvette-inspired license plate guitar for the man who has everything

First I have to say no gift is possible without good friends and a great desire to share.

A few months back I had the pleasure of working with Ray Evernham and his people at IGNITE, a community center in Davidson, NC for young adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger's Syndrome (AS).

I donated one of my license plate guitars to to be auctioned at their fundraising event in 2014. When two people raised the bidding on my Brad Paisley license plate guitar to $5,000, I agreed to make a second piece if both bidders would donate $5,000 each. It was such an honor to help raise money for this important cause.

The second guitar would be a custom piece, created as a gift for the very generous client who was not in the room but made the donation.

I always need the help of others to create a piece for a special person, I have to thank Dale Ledbetter for letting me pick his brain. This is the process that makes the gift special. This would be a gift for a man who has everything. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t creating something he already had.

That is no easy task, as the gentleman owns the greatest collection of guitars I’ve ever seen, as well as the world’s largest collection of classic Corvettes. Dale invited me to see these collections. I was in awe.

During the interview, I asked Dale which car was my client’s favorite. He showed me a Black 1967 Corvette Stingray 427 with a white stinger down the hood.

That was my inspiration. Using a guitar shape as my canvas, I set out to combine my client’s love of Corvettes with his love of music. Then I used vintage auto parts and license plates to bring the piece to life. Here are the details:

• I used license plates to spell out 1967 for the year and 427 for the engine at the top to represent the keys.
• I spelled out CORVETTE down the neck with vintage tags with a red, white and blue underlay to give it the classic Chevrolet feel.
• The body and hood stinger is created from license plates that are sculpted and shaped to resemble his favorite car.
• I used a 1967 Corvette gas door with the crossed flags logo -- one of the iconic parts of the car -- in the center hole.
• The original Corvette designer, Zora Arkus-Duntov, is featured on the guitar body, as Dale explained our client was very fond of him. I used vintage General Motors emblems to spell out his name at the bridge position.
• At the bottom of the piece I wrote out STINGRAY in license plates to complete the face.
• Around the outside of the piece I spelled out "worlds Largest Corvette Collection. Its on of the clients many distinguished accomplishments.

I would like to thank everyone who helped make this piece so special.