Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Berg.
Gary, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in a small town community with plenty of rolling hills and wide open spaces. Myself, and my friends, all acquired dirt bikes and began riding them in the local hills as we were too young to ride on the street. I had always loved to draw. The custom motorcycles and hot rods in the magazines really intrigued me so in the summer between my 8th grade graduation and my freshman year of high school I painted and pinstriped my motorcycle in my parents garage. My friends liked what I did so they had me paint their motorcycles too. Then it became friends of friends and older siblings that had cars. Then parents of friends and my little side business slowly grew as word got out.
The summer between High School graduation and my freshman year in college I painted a van that made the cover of a Custom Van Magazine. That was the early 70’s and era of the custom van craze. I painted quite a few that were in car shows and winning awards.
I acquired my AA in Geology in College and ended up working for the painter/pinstriper Mike Clines for 2 years. From there I went to California Customs as their custom painter and pinstriper for 4 years. In 1978 I left California Customs and started my own Custom Paint shop, Paintin’ Place Autographics.
I sold Paintin’ Place after 2 years (the shop is still thriving in Westlake, CA) and went strictly mobile doing pinstriping and lettering. I worked mostly the body shops and car dealerships with about a 60 mile radius from home. I would always start at a dealership before daybreak prepping the front line of new vehicles and have at least 5-10 done before the sun got hot. (Thank God it doesn’t rain in Southern California). Then it was off to work the body shops that had paged me a day or two before (this is before cell phones) as I worked my way from client to client. I usually ended up at a dealership close to my home and worked pinstriping their cars in the cool afternoon/evenings. I was there working sometimes until way after closing time. I was not married or had any children to worry about so it was all work. Weekends were usually reserved for lettering on Contractors trucks/vans so they didn’t have to miss a day of work during the week.
I’ve done work from San Diego to Seattle and from San Jose to Denver with all points in between. I’ve made many friends because of what I do and many of them are in the same profession. I have worked with a lot of them and there is something truly magical working alongside a fellow pinstriper. I liken it to being a musician working in harmony with a band on stage.
I have worked on some wild and beautiful projects. I have painted the world’s largest motorcycle called the “Wilkinson Wind Machine” that was in the Guinness Book Of Records Museum in Hollywood for years. I was just contacted by a man who recently purchased it for some information on it. I have worked on the Thrust SSC which is the jet powered car that broke the speed of sound at Black Rock Dry Lake (home of the Burning Man festival) October 15, 1997.
Another fun event was the building of the Mark and Brian Turkey Rocket. I was into High Power Rocketry at the time and through a series of events Mark and Brian learned of my involvement into this hobby and wanted to know if I could launch a Frozen Turkey on one of my rockets. This was to coincide with “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly” the famous quote spoken by station manager Arthur Carlson (played by Gordon Jump) in the 1978 Thanksgiving episode of the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. It was in the episode, “Turkeys Away” (Season 1, Episode 7), which aired on October 30, 1978. I designed, built, and “flew” that rocket with an 18.5 lb frozen turkey as a nose cone to an altitude of about 1000’ feet AGL. This took place at Lucerne Dry Lake 2 days before Thanksgiving in 1990. The Rocket, the turkey, and I were in the Mark and Brian annual “Day Before Thanksgiving Day Parade” that was held at the LA Coliseum. One of the pictures provided is myself, the rocket and Mark and Brian. Mark on the right, Brian on the left.
Another big thrill for me was when Hyundai/Genesis came calling and they flew me to Korea to pinstripe Genesis cars for them. I have been there 5 times now. They even flew my wife over there one time to be with me and as it happened, it was her birthday. What a great birthday dinner we had as the food there is amazing! What a great company and I’ve made many friends there and we still correspond.
I’ve always loved what I have done for a career that has spanned the past 60 years and at the age of 73 I still do it for “Love Of Craft” and will never retire. There is a real joy I get from seeing the smile on people’s faces when they see what I have “created” for them by making their vehicle truly their own. I’ve told so many people over the years that if the Bank would pay my mortgage, I’d do this for free.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The early years were fantastic. The 1970’s were just awash with work as was the 1980’s. The early 1990’s I started to see a slowdown and by the mid 1990’s I could see the writing on the wall that pinstriping just wasn’t as popular as it had been for a long time. Even the car manufacturers that had factory pinstriping on their models started to wane. It was at this time that I met a fellow artist who did what I did and lived in Seattle. He told me that he was “just swamped with work and couldn’t handle it all”. So, I purchased a 5th wheel, rented out my house, and moved up to Seattle to work with him. I settled close to Seattle in the beautiful little town of Issaquah, WA. It was a very easy, beautiful drive into Seattle across Lake Washington on the floating bridge. What was supposed to be a shop awash with work turned out to be a complete fabrication by him. I will not mention his name here. After 3 months I left his shop and began working at Reid Signs in Seattle, another person I knew in the area, who was very busy. I was now gainfully employed in the Northwest and was loving the new surroundings and culture of Seattle at the time. There were pinstripers and artists in the area and they would pass along work to me. John Hannukaine out of Tumwater and Don King (RIP) out of Kelso really did their all by passing on jobs to me after what that initial individual had done to me.
It was during this time that the person who was renting my home in Thousand Oaks I got wind that he was dealing drugs out of my home. I immediately set about to have him evicted. 4 days before he was to be out of my home he took out renter’s insurance. The night before he was to be out, my house burned down. The investigation proved it was arson. I soon learned it was his 7th insurance claim in 12 years, all from fire damage. Insurance didn’t cover the rebuild.
Because of this, I moved back to Thousand Oaks and worked on rebuilding what had become of my life which I won’t bore you with the hardships.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I think I pretty much summed up this question in the history of my career, the first question. What I did not mention is that I have acquired a new passion I first experimented with in the mid 1990’s. It is the art of Reverse Gold Gilded Glass signage from the Victorian Era. I did not have the time to fully immerse myself into it but was in awe of the beauty of the art form. It wasn’t until after 2008 that I started to revisit this craft. I have met some very incredible artisans in that field and they have graciously taken me under their wing by showing my how it is done. John Studden is my mentor and is truly a gifted artisan. He has done work for Disney and Universal City Walk to name a few. I’m sure you have see the beauty of Gold Leaf lettering in the windows and mirrors in various buildings. It’s very difficult to take pictures of this work as you’re taking a picture of a mirror and all your getting is the reflected images. You almost have to make a video and walk by it so can catch it “dancing” in front of you.
This is what I truly love to do now and will be focusing on more and more as I cruise into my remaining years I have left. There is not many people that are doing this, just a handful of us devoted individuals.
Any big plans?
My wife and I have purchased a home in the South and will be moving there in about a year. There is a plethora of lakes, rivers, and marinas so close to my house. My favorite thing to work on is boats whether it be pinstriping, lettering a name on the boat, or the registration numbers. Those are required on every boat. When someone spends $75,000 plus on a boat, they don’t want to put tacky hardware mailbox letters/numbers on that boat. That’s where I’ll come in. There is not many people doing that where I will be so, even in my mid 70’s, I hope to keep my hands on the steering wheel and the fire in my desire to create something better. Also, there are so many historical buildings in the cities that will be surrounding me. Not one building has Reverse Gold Gilded signage in/on the windows or doors there. The Gold Leaf signage is either not wanted, or no one is offering it/can do it. I hope it’s the latter and I’ll be there to rectify that situation. Also, there is a custom painter that I worked with here in So Cal who moved just 2 hours away from our home there. He does mostly boats and we have done so many together in the past. He says he has a lot of work lined up for me when I get there so there is another thing to keep occupied. My prospects are looking good for my transition there.
As the name of my business here in California is “Left Coast Design” that name wont’ fly in the south. The new business name will be called “Hired Gun Signs”.
Pricing:
- The work I do is so diverse in scope and execution that there is no certain pricing criteria that can be described. Especially when It comes to Gold Leaf work. The cost of Gold has gone through the stratosphere. It may come to transpire that future Gold Gilded Glass Signage may be out of the confines of reality cost wise.
Contact Info:
- Website: hiredgunsigns.com (Future business name and Website)
