| Scott Thomas While
growing up, Scott Thomas always had an interest in
art and design. At the age of 19 he moved from a small
town in Missouri to Kansas City, to get away from
the small town and more importantly to pursue a degree
in art from the Kansas City Art Institute. When he
arrived in the big city, he found the
cost of Art School was not within his reach. Instead,
Scott went to work for a custom car shop where the
classes he took in auto body in high school really
came in handy. He became disillusioned working in
the custom shop, as it did not provide a steady paycheck
and he needed to make a living. He went to work in
a collision repair shop where paychecks came on a
weekly basis, and at night he would restore old cars
at home.
In 1993, a friend of Scott's asked if he would do
a paint job on his motorcycle. He decided to try it,
wondering if he could actually do artwork and make
money while doing it. This first paint job turned
into a few bikes a year. It didn't take long before
he really started enjoying doing artwork again.
In 1996, Kim Suter was building a bike for a customer.
This customer had his own painter who happened to
be Scott. Paul Harper, KC Creations fabricator, was
so impressed with the job Scott had done that he wanted
Kim to meet him. The bike was solid burple.
The bodywork and paint were first class. At the time,
Kim was using a couple of different painters; their
graphics were good, but the artist was not real dependable.
K C Creations needed an artist and so an alliance
was born. Scott says that Kim was his first taste
of painting really cool bikes. Prior to that, it was
mostly older bikes and repairs jobs.
Several
men have influenced Scott's artwork. Big Daddy Roth
and Von Dutch from the 50's and 60's for their style
of art; and Rex Addams for his custom hot rods.
Scott has the gift to see the end product while creating
the design and has an excellent eye for composing
brilliant color combinations.
Scott's ability to turn raw sheet metal into a complete
iron masterpiece is something very few people have.
His passion for what he does shows in each bike that
he finishes. Scott is sure to make a custom creation
with any paint design. This is what a paint
salesman noticed about him in 2001when he was asked
to enter the "House of Kolor Prestigious Painter
Contest". House of Kolor is owned by John
Kosmoski who is a painter himself. He worked along
side chemists to come up with most of the really cool
paint you see today. Most custom shops use House of
Kolor paint because of the candies, pearls, and flakes.
They were the innovators of the paint industry,
says Thomas. Scott decided to enter the contest and
he ended up winning top honors. The next couple of
years, he procrastinated until it was too late and
was not able to enter. In 2003, Scott entered the
contest a place. He entered again in the fall of this
year and again, Scott won. This is quite an honor,
since there are only 12 spots available and he took
one of them out of the hundreds of entries sent in.
Scott says that winning these awards help a person
understand that his talents are recognizable and makes
them strive to be better.
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