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Crazy Painter continued |
Today, Kelly and Son is made up of Tom and Mitch and two
employees. Mitch Kelly focuses on doing custom
and complete paint jobs, and what his father describes
as, "the modern graphics."
As for himself, Tom Kelly says he's still doing pretty much what
he started out doing 43 years ago: a mix of graphics, striping,
murals and lettering. "Everything concerning the cars now
they call graphics, but not a lot has changed except a little bit
of the style," he says. "We've done all the same things
in the past: striping the dashes, the weird pictures, the scallops
and the flames."
That's not to say Kelly finds everything the same. One thing he's
not especially happy with is the changes that have come over the
years with paints. He says he misses the presence of some items
that have been banned for health reasons, such as lead and some
of the lacquers and toners.
On the other hand, "They do have some nice colors out now:
the shimmering colors and the pearlescent colors, for example." However,
a great deal of Kelly's custom work is done with 1 Shot®.
He cites a Suburban that came through the door lately as an example.
"We did some mini-graphics on it and a lot of splatter paint," Kelly
explains. "We also did some airbrush blending along with the pinstriping,
and I painted a little mural on the gas cap, too."
The mini-murals actually date back to the 1950s when he was putting
something similar on the gas caps of old cars. They're an example
of one of Kelly's custom techniques, and one that doesn't necessarily
appear regularly. Or, as he puts it, "I keep it up every once
in awhile when the spirit moves me."
At least part of the technique is common to many school children:
finger-painting. "The background is done by finger-painting
-- actually it's done with my thumb," Kelly says. "I
smear the paint on and put in some clouds with my thumb, things
like that. Then, I fill it in with the brush."
Kelly's work ranges from the serious to the whimsical, from cartoon
characters to the strictly business-like. Kelly and Son also do
their share of custom sign jobs, and while the senior member of
the company professes to like both types of work, he takes a lot
of satisfaction from being able to combine the two.
A good case in point is another recent job he did, which involved
doing a package of striping and mini-graphics on a new truck, as
well as including a variation on the owner's business sign. "I'm
able to do it all custom and neat-looking, so that it fits the
vehicle, and it doesn't just look like a sign board," is how
he explains it. "I like to think it looks like a nice three-piece
suit where everything matches."
ALWAYS AN ARTIST
Kelly believes he's fortunate in that all of his business is basically
from word-of-mouth, which means most of his customers are aware
of the work he does and usually leave it up to him to create as
he sees fit. "I've generally been lucky," he says. "I
can just about look at a person and they way they're dressed and
picture how far I can go with them, whether it's real far out or
real mild or real subtle.
When they leave it up to me, if I want to get creative I get creative."
Although Kelly got into the business as a teenager, when custom
cars were mainly a hot teenage item, his customer base has expanded
and matured as he's gotten older. And, because he's been in the
business so long, he's become the striper for entire families of
car owners.
"It goes all the way from the guy who pushes his
car in to get a name on the window to the millionaire who leaves
it with his chauffeur," he says of his customers. "I've
also got customers where I'm on their third generation;
I've done the grandfather's work, the father's work and now the
kid's work." Such situations make him feel a little old, Kelly
confesses, and he suspects with the younger set there's some concern
occasionally that he can come up with ideas they're going to like.
"Mitch usually tells me if I'm on the right track -- and I'm usually there," he
says. "But, I've been doing this so long and I've created so many styles
-- especially with lettering -- that it's not hard to come up with new things
or different-looking things." And, he adds, the bottom line for his customers
is the same as it always has been: that they leave with smiles on their faces.
Kelly also believes there's another component that's helped keep
him fresh creatively for so many years: the fact that he really
likes his job. "There are a lot of people who go to work every
day hating what they do, but I really enjoy what I'm doing," he
says. "I enjoy the people I talk to; everyone is different
and every job is a brand new job.
I think God created me for this." That may be why, asked to
project into the future, Kelly says he can easily see himself working
another 20 years or so. And, should he reach a point where he chooses
to retire, he'll keep on painting, a hobby that's already gotten
him into some art shows.
He may have plenty of history in automotive decoration, but it's
obvious Tom Kelly keeps looking to the future, and with good reason.
Son Mitch has a son, also named Tom, and the senior Kelly says
he wouldn't mind at all adding another generation to The Crazy
Painters. -end
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| TOM KELLY |
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| Kelly's grandfather, known professionally as The Baron. |
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Tom Kelly of Bellflower, Calif., inspecting his work on an '89 Dodge van. click here for a larger image.
-Photo by Marshall Spiegel |
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| Kelly was finger painting murals as far back as 1957. click here for larger image. |
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| Kelly points out the detail in his mini-mural. |
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| A little brush work here and there puts the finishing touches on another mini-masterpiece. |
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Kelly put roughly four hours into this airbrushed mural. The job retailed for $500.
-Photos by Marshall Spiegel |
| Tom Kelly Links |
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