The year -- 1995 and I was working for a great company called "ART BEAT" (located in Northwest, USA) that produces some of the finest screen printed garments for the automotive apparel industry. We were producing a design for a rod run in Monroe, Washington called the "SUPERRUN ONE" which would be featuring a special guest, none other than "Big Daddy" Ed Roth himself. Ed Roth is one of the legends of car culture and the creator of the infamous "RAT FINK" which you still find mass marketed today. Ed was one of the first to airbrush t-shirts on the car show circuit and of course design some of the wildest cars ever seen.

He was truly an innovator and a creative genius. Big Daddy and his son were traveling through our community after the "SUPERRUN ONE" to do a local car show. They were impressed with the screen printed design that we had produced for the rod run and that we had done all the separations on the computer. Ed was wondering if we had time to give him some tutoring on sreenprinted seperations via the old PC. Did we have time???? of course.... you don't turn down the opportunity to hang out with a legend for the day. We spent the day with Ed and showed him what we could on the computer. We finished up the day with the largest hamburger and fries available in the area, a full pound of beef, run through the garden, served on a platter with a mound of fries and a Coke or two to wash it all down. We shared some laughs and some grub. What a day! Following our big day with Ed we all did our local car show the "World of Wheels." During the show I airbrushed the painting you see in the above picture, it was one of Ed's images that he hadn't produced in color and He ended up purchasing the painting from me, with the intent of making small posters to sell on the show circuit. I was truly honored to meet Big Daddy and was so saddened by his passing. His images, vehicles and wacky ideas have shaped the grid of the custom culture and he lives on in those of us impacted by all he created.

-Kevin Beeson, STREETRODART.com    Beeson Gallery