| Pinheads Central | |||||||||||||||||
| Our Mission: |
We are Pinheads, and proud of it. Pinheads are people striving to preserve a little piece of Americana, called Pinstriping. The Pinstripers International Network is going into it's sixth year, and collecting as many as 1000 members, world wide. We eat, sleep and work to lay down the finest in automotive art that the world can stand. While our organization may be young, our roots are deep and strong. Our lineage started out in the late forties and continues to flourish with the Kustom Kulture art contributed by our founding fathers, (many are still working!) to the new blood of our younger members. This is an art that knows no limits, but one's imagination! With each line pulled, whether by a life member or by a rookie member, there comes the potential for exciting new ideas. Bookmark this site to witness classic art and new wave art as well. | ||||||||||||||||
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3rd Annual Pinheads Bike & Auto Show. Since this event only happened days previous to this update, not all of the information and photos are in and ready. Please watch the next several weeks for updates and photos. | Events and Happenings - Updated as info and photos become available | ||||||||||||||||
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| Artist's Profile - Monthly feature with photos. Photos will change weekly. This month's Pinhead; Ray 'El Vago' Smith |
Hello, let me tell you about my best friend, the pinstriper El Vago. His life started in '44 in Saugus, Mass (north of Boston). Living began when he picked up a striping brush. El Vago's artistic talents are inherited. Five years of drafting classes helped fine tune his design. A steady hand lets him pull the straightest lines. His "eye" for color brings his "masterpieces" together. Like all great people who's craft is their all consuming passion; El Vago eats, drinks and breathes striping. In a 90's vernacular, striping is his drug of choice. El Vago's interest in old cars came from the stories his grandfather would tell. He began reading all the books and magazines he could find about cars. Then he came across an article about a "new craze" on the west coast - pinstriping. El Vago began practicing incessantly, starting with lined paper, which helped create balanced designs. Then, few things in his mom's house were safe from the Mack brush. The big thrill came at age thirteen, when a friend needed his '50 Mercury Club coupe striped. He said, "After numerous starts, lacking balance and not quite vertical, I had an original design on a car, I was a striper." "And now, so many years later, so many cars (etc.) and countless magazine articles; it's the '50 Merc I remember best". "The name El Vago I bestowed upon myself in the beginning. I was inspired by a picture of a chopped '56 Chevy with El Vago emblazened on it's side and the rest is history". After four in the Navy, it was back to Massachusetts where he could be found at the Dunkin Donuts, Rt. 1, Saugus; Between midnight and dawn striping by the lights in the parking lot. His day job was in the parts department of a Mercedes dealership. He was soon striping the cars before delivery, (I used to wonder how anyone could put a brush to a $100,000 car; until, I realized that stripers only see a canvas, and an opportunity to paint something in desperate need of striping). When vacationing in the Boston area,(we now live in Michigan, but that's another story), we end up at some cruise nite or car show. That's when I grasp the extent of the love, friendship and respect there is for El Vago the man and the striper. There would be cars he had striped twenty year ago. The owner have changed, but the striping's still there. El Vago enjoys playing with words (he calls extended vocabulary). For example, naming his business PAINTCO after his 1955 Pontiac Safari wagon. He also enjoys drawing what he calls "car-i-cartoons", a cross between a characture and a cartoon. He has done over 500 of them this past winter. So after 40 years of striping, El Vago still WOWS the client, inspires the striper and impresses the best of them. signed, Mrs. Ray Smith | ||||||||||||||||
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