This whole ‘Stickemania’ painting series started innocently enough. I painted a mid ‘60’s blue VW bus, with a local historic image in the background, the Campbell, CA water tower. The night before a local art show, I decided to add stickers from the iconic 1970-1980’s Los Gatos, Campbell, and Saratoga bars and restaurants that I got ‘kicked out of’ in my youth. At least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
Little did I know what a nostalgia ‘nerve’ that I tapped into. With the success of the original ‘Stickermania VW Bus’ art prints, I added the ‘Stickermania II – Capitola’ which incorporated the restaurants and bars in Capitol and Santa Cruz that- you guessed it- I may have had some fun in during my 20’s…
I have always loved Porsche’s- the first drawing I did was in 2nd grade of a Porsche Speedster (I still have that drawing). I was fortunate to have a father that took me and my brother to Laguna Seca Raceway, Monterey, CA when I was 4 years old in 1959. I grew up around Porsches (I used to get up early to help the paperboy fold papers, so I would be the first to get the classifieds. I would circle the Porsche’s and call them and then try to talk my dad into looking at them when he got home from work. I was 12 years old at the time). My dad did have quite a few Porsche’s back then (’59 black Cabriolet with a white hardtop, dark green cabriolet, ivory ’59 Convertible D, ‘59 sunroof coupe, very rusty 1967 911S – awesome cars!).
So that brings us to the ‘Porsche Rennsport Stickermania’ backstory. After the success of ‘Stickermania and Stickermania II – Capitola, I decided to recreate Porsche’s history- a little bit (don’t get too mad- I am not the first to create Porsche revisionist history). For the Rennsport Reunion VI at Laguna Seca, I decided to place the Porsche Factory Race Team support vehicle ‘Tall Roof’ Rennsport VW Bus at the 1970 “24 hours of Daytona”, with the winning 917K in the background (as far as I know, the only time the Porsche Factory Rennsport has been in the USA was at Rennsport V in Monterey, CA in 2015). I also took the liberty to plaster 1970, 80’s, 90’s period correct stickers on the back of the VW Bus. Sorry, Porsche, I couldn’t resist!
At Rennsport VI I spent a lot of time reminiscing with many of the people that have contributed heavily to the Porsche story. Rich Walton (and his dad) from Jerry Woods Enterprises, Clark Anderson, Wilfried Eibach, and many others stopped by to reminisce and talk about the memories that my artwork ‘Porsche Rennsport Stickermania’ brought to the surface.
