Boise Roadster show 2022
Coming full circle.
As car folk we love dividing ourselves into this group or that group. We love saying I’m into this or that. We tend to find those who are most like us and stick to that segmented part of an already segmented part of society. Roadster shows do many things not in the least is they kick off the season, premiere the latest trends; they are pinnacle of our little part of the world. They show the rest of the world, “ HEY, yea that’s right, this is what we do and we are proud of it!” It brings all of us together to show our good side not only to the public but also to each other. Bringing us all together exposes the underlining passion for the mechanical advantage to the surface. It resets our preconceived notions that sometime get construed throughout the year, it allows us to say oh yea they are car dudes like me. The best part of a roadster show is when I see someone’s fire get stoked with passion towards what I hold dear to my heart, this odd obsession with the mechanical rolling pieces of art. I find seeing that Joy, wonder, confusion and intrigue growing in someone as fuel for my soul.
When I was younger one of the ways to experience the Boise Roadster show was to enter the automotive art contest. Entry into the art contest gave you access to setup day and a pass for all days of the show. As a poor College kid this was beyond enticing! One year I had an Idea that would define me from that day forth. I wanted to do an art piece and to take advantage of benefits of being a contestant. I was into cars but not solidly into a specific style. I always loved customization and there was a local legend that ever since I was in Junior High I would just gawk at his creations. His youngest daughter was in my class so I would watch her get picked up by the most amazing vehicles…. nay…… Creations I had ever seen. I couldn’t wrap my head around how one would ever build something like that but I knew at that time that I could draw something like that. I drew His Chopped business coupe and his radically Kustomized 52 F1. I figured this would be a great piece to enter into the Roadster show. I felt that I needed his permission, so in my best stalker mode; I knew he worked at the Sugar beat factory and drove home about the same time I drove back from BSU. I waited at the exit and not long I spotted this new creation, a chopped Studebaker pickup with Buick grill, 61 Chrysler headlights frenched, canted and flipped, and a bed still in progress. I tailed him all the way to his house. Needless to say when he jumped out of his truck he was a little on edge that some goofball punk was following all the way home. Me being in a 63 Catalina I think calmed him down a bit. I explained what I was up to and he told me to bring the piece to his shop on 41st street the next evening. That next evening I took my piece to him and from that moment on I never left; from that moment Tony Farnetti had become not only my inspiration but my mentor and friend forever. From that moment I knew where I fit in this little microcosm of cars. I now own that Kustomized 52 F1 and cherish every moment I have with it and the memories it brings back of my dearest friend Tony Farnetti.
This year, 25 years years after that encounter I am officially entering my first vendors booth as an artist into the 49th Boise Roadster show. It is bringing me back full circle to where it began, in the way it began. My passion for cars has always coexisted with the love and desire to create through art.
