5 Kustom Kulture Artists You MUST Know About!
Vince Ray
Vince Ray has always been an
image-maker, but about 15 years ago his work became popular on the Low
Brow art scene and it’s led to a fruitful career for him as an
illustrator. Alongside his commercial illustration, he sings and plays
in a band and like his music there’s a certain rockabilly edge to his
visual style. Many of his clients are from the music industry.
After 25 years working in London,
he’s recently moved to Hastings where he’s discovered a love of the sea.
With two children, he has someone to blame for his huge toy collection,
which he’s always adding to. Vince is passionate about 1950s car and
motorcycle designs and the subculture that surrounds them, but enjoys
artwork from various other eras including Victorian times.
Ben Von Strawn
Ben
Von Strawn was a perfectly normal child, UNTIL he was exposed to E.C.
COMICS,RAT FINK,Warner Brothers Cartoons and MAD Magazine. After that,
he quickly transformed into a frothing at the mouth Juvenile Delinquent
MANIAC.
He
somehow managed to create PRIMITIVE drawings and writings along with
developing a MORBID CURIOSITY of-History, Art, Science, Writing, Travel,
Philosophy, Food, Film, Languages and Music.
Then
one FATEFUL day he was PAID for this GHASTLY work! Which only served to
ENCOURAGE him into the DOWNWARD SPIRAL of starting his own MONSTER
BUSINESS! His GRISLY work has been featured AROUND THE WORLD in
print,and various merchandise.
He
is also a WRITER, FILMMAKER, ENTREPRENEUR and grave robber from outer
space who is about to set into motion a certain “Plan-9” but that’s
besides the point.
View Ben Von Strawn Tees
Dirty Donny (The Artist)
Deemed to be one of the most influential artists to invade the pop
culture scenes of the punk, rock n roll and heavy metal underground,
Dirty Donny has been spreading his art across all mediums for decades;
ranging from skate decks to pinball machines, hot rods and album covers
to name but a few.
Hired early on by metal giants Metallica, young Donny escaped the
cold winter grasps of Montreal and headed for Sunny California to paint
murals, guitars, design T shirts and even paint the grand piano in
their rehearsal space.
Fast forward a full decade of west coast living, these days when
Donny’s not airbrushing custom van murals or tinkering with his muscle
car he can be found in his San Francisco home studio designing art for
top fuels Funny cars, skateboard shoes, guitars and guitar accessories,
model kits and pinball machines for the likes of Snap-on, Vans, AMT,
Fender, Dunlop and Stern pinball to name a few.
View Dirty Donny Tees
BigToe
Bigtoe,
AKA Tom Laura was born in LA and makes his home in Southern California.
His formative years were spent surfing from Baja south to Ventura in
the north, and copying images from Mad Magazine and Ed Roth. After
taking 10 years to get a 4 year fine arts degree at Cal State Long
Beach, the Toe went into the apparel business, the surf industry to be
specific and has Art Directed lines such as Op and Maui and Sons. After
opening his own design firm in 1998, he has also produced artwork for
brands such as Quiksilver, O'Neill, Rusty, Redsand, Hobie, Burton and
Split. During this time, surfing and surf travel has been Bigtoe’s
passion, with local status at the “Trestles” punctuated by occasional
surf trips to most of the Hawaiian Islands, Samoa and Various parts of
Baja and
mainland Mexico. After a 15 year "hiatus", he has started painting
again: acrylics is his medium of choice, and driftwood or other found
materials are his preferred "canvas".
View BigToe Tees
Von Franco
American Artist
Von
Franco is a self-taught American artist associated with the Lowbrow art
movement and Kustom Kulture. He became involved at an early age in the
burgeoning hot rod and Kustom Kulture scene of Southern California. His
skill at drawing hot rod and monster art, popular in Kustom Kulture,
caught the attention of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, for whom Von Franco later
worked. Von Franco became a builder of custom automobiles, gaining
notoriety for building clones of Norm Grabowski's Kookie, Kookie II and
Lightning Bug t-buckets, as well as a clone/expansion of the Golden Rod.
Von Franco is also known for his distinctive pinstriping and
hand-lettering techniques. He was also the guitarist in the surf band
The Bomboras and played the vibraphone in The Hyperions.
Vince Ray has always been an
image-maker, but about 15 years ago his work became popular on the Low
Brow art scene and it’s led to a fruitful career for him as an
illustrator. Alongside his commercial illustration, he sings and plays
in a band and like his music there’s a certain rockabilly edge to his
visual style. Many of his clients are from the music industry.
After 25 years working in London, he’s recently moved to Hastings where he’s discovered a love of the sea. With two children, he has someone to blame for his huge toy collection, which he’s always adding to. Vince is passionate about 1950s car and motorcycle designs and the subculture that surrounds them, but enjoys artwork from various other eras including Victorian times.
Ben
Von Strawn was a perfectly normal child, UNTIL he was exposed to E.C.
COMICS,RAT FINK,Warner Brothers Cartoons and MAD Magazine. After that,
he quickly transformed into a frothing at the mouth Juvenile Delinquent
MANIAC.
He
somehow managed to create PRIMITIVE drawings and writings along with
developing a MORBID CURIOSITY of-History, Art, Science, Writing, Travel,
Philosophy, Food, Film, Languages and Music.
Then one FATEFUL day he was PAID for this GHASTLY work! Which only served to ENCOURAGE him into the DOWNWARD SPIRAL of starting his own MONSTER BUSINESS! His GRISLY work has been featured AROUND THE WORLD in print,and various merchandise.
He is also a WRITER, FILMMAKER, ENTREPRENEUR and grave robber from outer space who is about to set into motion a certain “Plan-9” but that’s besides the point.
Hired early on by metal giants Metallica, young Donny escaped the cold winter grasps of Montreal and headed for Sunny California to paint murals, guitars, design T shirts and even paint the grand piano in their rehearsal space.
Fast forward a full decade of west coast living, these days when Donny’s not airbrushing custom van murals or tinkering with his muscle car he can be found in his San Francisco home studio designing art for top fuels Funny cars, skateboard shoes, guitars and guitar accessories, model kits and pinball machines for the likes of Snap-on, Vans, AMT, Fender, Dunlop and Stern pinball to name a few.
After 25 years working in London, he’s recently moved to Hastings where he’s discovered a love of the sea. With two children, he has someone to blame for his huge toy collection, which he’s always adding to. Vince is passionate about 1950s car and motorcycle designs and the subculture that surrounds them, but enjoys artwork from various other eras including Victorian times.
Ben Von Strawn
Then one FATEFUL day he was PAID for this GHASTLY work! Which only served to ENCOURAGE him into the DOWNWARD SPIRAL of starting his own MONSTER BUSINESS! His GRISLY work has been featured AROUND THE WORLD in print,and various merchandise.
He is also a WRITER, FILMMAKER, ENTREPRENEUR and grave robber from outer space who is about to set into motion a certain “Plan-9” but that’s besides the point.
|
| View Ben Von Strawn Tees |
Dirty Donny (The Artist)
Deemed to be one of the most influential artists to invade the pop culture scenes of the punk, rock n roll and heavy metal underground, Dirty Donny has been spreading his art across all mediums for decades; ranging from skate decks to pinball machines, hot rods and album covers to name but a few.Hired early on by metal giants Metallica, young Donny escaped the cold winter grasps of Montreal and headed for Sunny California to paint murals, guitars, design T shirts and even paint the grand piano in their rehearsal space.
Fast forward a full decade of west coast living, these days when Donny’s not airbrushing custom van murals or tinkering with his muscle car he can be found in his San Francisco home studio designing art for top fuels Funny cars, skateboard shoes, guitars and guitar accessories, model kits and pinball machines for the likes of Snap-on, Vans, AMT, Fender, Dunlop and Stern pinball to name a few.
|
| View Dirty Donny Tees |
BigToe
Bigtoe, AKA Tom Laura was born in LA and makes his home in Southern California. His formative years were spent surfing from Baja south to Ventura in the north, and copying images from Mad Magazine and Ed Roth. After taking 10 years to get a 4 year fine arts degree at Cal State Long Beach, the Toe went into the apparel business, the surf industry to be specific and has Art Directed lines such as Op and Maui and Sons. After opening his own design firm in 1998, he has also produced artwork for brands such as Quiksilver, O'Neill, Rusty, Redsand, Hobie, Burton and Split. During this time, surfing and surf travel has been Bigtoe’s passion, with local status at the “Trestles” punctuated by occasional surf trips to most of the Hawaiian Islands, Samoa and Various parts of Baja and mainland Mexico. After a 15 year "hiatus", he has started painting again: acrylics is his medium of choice, and driftwood or other found materials are his preferred "canvas".
|
| View BigToe Tees |
Von Franco
American Artist
Von
Franco is a self-taught American artist associated with the Lowbrow art
movement and Kustom Kulture. He became involved at an early age in the
burgeoning hot rod and Kustom Kulture scene of Southern California. His
skill at drawing hot rod and monster art, popular in Kustom Kulture,
caught the attention of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, for whom Von Franco later
worked. Von Franco became a builder of custom automobiles, gaining
notoriety for building clones of Norm Grabowski's Kookie, Kookie II and
Lightning Bug t-buckets, as well as a clone/expansion of the Golden Rod.
Von Franco is also known for his distinctive pinstriping and
hand-lettering techniques. He was also the guitarist in the surf band
The Bomboras and played the vibraphone in The Hyperions.
