Why? Because, simply put, bringing life to the ideas in my mind literally feeds my soul. On three different occasions since 1997, I have given up creature comforts to live in my shop, or in a cabover camper, to make sure I followed my passion first and kept my shop going. The custom bike building path is not always the easiest one. I mention this only because I believe every person represented by their art and custom motorcycles in this room has a similar story. As it turned out, I was in it for the long haul and look, I'm still going, and I still love it. I never really had a plan (and certainly not a business plan), but rather, just put one foot in front of the other and kept going. We couldn't even conceive of this as a possibility back then! In the beginning, I just rode my bike and took photos of what I saw. Who would have thought when we started out that we would all show our work together in an art gallery? We didn’t get in it for the money, and indeed not fame. Whether the years were lean or fat, driven by their passion, they just had to keep going, and now here they are! What is clear is that they have stood up to harsh economic and industry pressures, through recessions and now a pandemic, to keep their hat's in the ring. They have built at least 20-custom bikes, and some have built hundreds. They are at least 40 years old, several are septuagenarians and one is an octogenarian (Ron Finch at 81). Each of the 35-builders (and two fellow artists) that I invited to join me in this exhibition have been in the business for at least 20-years. 'Heavy Mettle - Motorcycles and Art with Moxie' shows the staying power of this incredible group of builders and artists.

Little butch mini bike chopper parts