Two local men have designs on vehicles

Apr. 4—ASHLAND — The two artists can sit together for hours, talking about paint, brushes and projects. Their canvases, however, are different.

Darin Allen, 57, of Catlettsburg is well known for his freehand pinstriping on vehicles. He owns Killer Designs by Darin. His protege, Tracey Mackenzie, 47, of Raceland does the same for motorcycles through his business, Xtreme Kustom Paint.

Both started in the business in a similar way: by watching pinstriping.

At 12, Allen saw his first pinstriper and fell in love with the work.

"I was at a Glockner Chevrolet car show in 1978," he said. "I saw a pinstriper and I said, 'That's what I want to do.'"

When Mackenzie first watched a pinstriper, which happened to be Allen, he did the same: He declared that's what he wanted to do.

Allen, whose father was a mechanic and mother was a drag racer, first did a striping job for Edgar Nethercutt.

"It was a 1951 Mercury," Nethercutt said. "It's been in magazines all over, and it helped him get on board, too."

He said he was glad to help Allen get his career started. "He's done nothing but get better all the time," Nethercutt said. "Every job, he just keeps getting better."

Allen painted everything — baseball helmets, model cars, any kind of decorative object. He also studied on his own.

"I had a collection of books called 'Car and Custom' and 'Car Craft,'" he said. "I'd look at their designs and copy them on paper."

Once he was older and his father was working for E.B. Lowman Construction, Allen joined his father at the company. There, he began putting lettering on company trucks. Eventually, he attended car shows, where he set up tents and sold his services to car and motorcycle owners.

As his skill and reputation grew, he began traveling farther away to shows with his tent. He also traveled for specific jobs, one of which took him to Ketchikan, Alaska.

"A stranger called and asked, 'Do you want to come to Ketchikan and paint a firetruck?'" Allen recalled. He said the caller said he was recommended by someone in California with whom he'd worked. At first, Allen was suspicious of the caller, thinking the offer might not be a legitimate job, but when he bought the plane tickets and arranged for an eight-day stay, he knew it was for real.

The California pinstripers with whom he worked were in Mojave, California.

"I got invited to a pinhead get-together," he said. "That's when I learned I was fast. I was doing three to their one."

He said working fast wasn't something he aspired to; he works fast out of necessity.

"The faster I work, the more money I make," he said.

Mackenzie's path to painting bikes was more complicated.

He started hanging out with Allen at his shop.

"For me, it's the art, but it started with a passion for cars," Mackenzie said, noting he thought about becoming a mechanic, but decided the aesthetics were most important to him. "I decided if it's shining and sitting in the front yard, I'm happy."

Mackenzie, like Allen, did pinstriping at car shows. The internet provided an opportunity for Mackenzie to see what other pinstripers from throughout the country and world were doing. He started pinstriping bikes when he attended a Goldwing Honda show, which led him to Sturgis, South Dakota, to work at Full Throttle Saloon, the world's largest biker bar, then owned by Jesse James Dupree. He has since learned to airbrush and led him to do T-shirts, as well as airbrushing on bikes. Allen called him "an amazing airbrush artist."

But Allen told him he'd have to learn to work fast to make money, and Mackenzie found that to be true. Both men produce their product quickly, out of necessity.

But they are able to because they freehand their designs. Allen said many artists take hours to make the design and tape it off. They often use a grid approach to making the design, while Allen and Mackenzie simply create without a pattern.

Both men get most of their jobs out of the area.

Allen said 90% of his work is 100 miles away.

That's not because there is no demand in the area, but the market outside the area is larger.

Regardless of where they live, those who love cars and bikes are proud of them and want to make the most of them. That means beautifully painted details like Allen and Mackenzie provide.

"If you have your dream car, it's sentimental," Mackenzie said. "It's something they've achieved personally. You don't think about it when you're working, but people have a passion."

Allen agreed.

"It's like they're showing their baby," he said. "And I get to hold it awhile."

(606) 326-2661 — lward@dailyindependent.com