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Thursday, July 1, 2004
Man Takes Hot-Rod Art Mainstream
By Ruben Gonzales
Mountain View Telegraph
"Art for way-out kats and kool chicks," is how Willy Fisher describes his unusual art style.
Fisher and his wife, Molly, opened an art gallery on Tingley Avenue in Moriarty three weeks ago. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the gallery is scheduled for noon Friday.
The gallery, Daddy-O Designs, has a sample of the art style for which Fisher is known around the world. He said that style of art has remained underground until recently.
In the past, he said, "hot-rod art" was reserved for people who frequent car and motorcycle shows, and usually have a multitude of tattoos.
His art has a tattoo style with a hot-rod theme and both are present in much of his work.
"It's not for everyone," he said.
Flames, car engines, skulls and pinstripe designs in myriad bright colors are among his talents.
Fisher said he moved to Moriarty in 1997 because he wanted to establish a home base after five years touring the country in a bus. During those years, Fisher and his wife were going from one car show to the next, where he would airbrush pictures of cars on T-shirts.
Since the early 1970s Fisher, who is from California, said he has been painting cars and motorcycles as well as developing his artistic abilities.
He worked for his dad in the early '70s in an auto-collision repair shop— painting cars.
"I went from painting cars to painting pictures of cars," he said. Later in the decade Fisher spend time airbrushing T-shirts with the hot-rod theme in various places in California before taking his talent on the road.
But his skills are not limited to hot-rod art.
In addition to T-shirts, he can do custom paint and airbrush work on cars, but not at his Moriarty gallery, he said. He also has worked for large corporations. He has painted the Skoal tobacco logo on monster trucks, he said, and has drawn advertising banners for Coors and RC Cola.
He also has created storefront signs for businesses throughout the United States and internationally.
The problem with working for corporations, he said, is a lack of artistic freedom.
"It was more of a paycheck that let me do what I really liked," he said.
Currently, Fisher has moved more toward jobs that give him free rein.
Owners of businesses like tattoo shops, motorcycle stores and insurance agencies give him a "grocery list" of elements they want included in their sign, and he runs with the idea— from design to construction and delivery, he said.
The Fishers opened the gallery in Moriarty to offer their services as well as a unique art style to the area, he said.
Although he is unsure about where his business will go from here, Fisher said for right now it will serve as a platform for business he does on the Internet. He does a large portion of his work at a studio in his Moriarty home, but ships most of the products to other states, he said.
In addition to sign creations, his shop offers T-shirts, posters and decals as well as designs for cars, boats, motorcycles and tattoos.
Along with all of that, he said, he will continue to provide services for other companies.
Fisher said he would like to pursue another interest of his: furniture creations that he wants to present at home shows. Coffee tables with unique designs and colors, mirrors in the shape of the Maltese cross and pinstriped refrigerator doors are among some of the household wares he can provide.
Furniture, he said, will let him take his art beyond the canvas medium and offer his style to the mainstream.
"This gallery will give me a platform to come out of the box," he said.
Daddy-O Designs is at the corner of Tingley Avenue and N.M. 41. For more information call 832-9810.
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