Unique Signs

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is more than the site of another Bike Week. Myrtle Beach is home to East Coast Artie, famous pinstriper known far and wide for colorful pinstripes, and neat gold-leaf work, applied to everything from the local fire department’s trucks, to the bikes that people bring to the Myrtle Beach Bike Week.

I came in on Friday, the tail end of their Week. In spite of the best efforts of Myrtle Beach itself, a whole lot of motorcycles showed up. Perhaps not as many as in years past, but the event is definitely alive and well.

Crazy pinstripers are likely to add stripes and scallops to nearly anything, including this Epiphone guitar.

Instead of riding the Harley to the Broken Spoke or Suck Bang Blow, however, I took the rental-sled to the Artie’s shop, where Artie and two of his guest artists did stripes and scallops on Panels and an old Ranchero, all for the benefit of a certain Wolfgang book, due out this coming fall.

By Sunday our two guest artists, Mr. J, (xcaliberart.com) and Mikey, (Michael Frederick, Unique Signs, Mamaroneck, NY) were headed back to New York State; only to be replaced by Nubs, (Nub Grafix.com). Nubs did a phenomenal job of pinstriping a very cool Epiphone guitar, while Artie did a panel that will be auctioned off for an upcoming charity event.

Mikey is like a good athlete, he makes a project like this panel look easy – don’t believe it.

By the end of this week I hope to have at least 12 start-to-finish sequences, all of which will be assembled into our next pinstriping book: Pro Pinstripes.

After a tough day or pinstriping and taking photos of pinstripers, the team retired to the local watering hole. Left to right: Nubs, Mikey, Yours Truly, and Mr. J.

Artie’s office, with Artie on the left and Nubs on the right. In addition to an incredible collection of panels, Artie has about a million Hot Wheels cars of every shape, size and color.