Master Pinstriper Steve Kafka Keeps This American Art Form Alive
Story by Wendy Manning, Photos by Rodent
From mild to wild, from Harleys to Cadillacs, the work of famed pinstriper Steve Kafka is always in demand. Over the years Steve’s artful pinstripes and custom painting and graphics have attracted a large following and although there are many imitators of his work, discerning bikers are willing to wait for an original by this master of technique. His yearly appearances at Barnett Harley-Davidson in El Paso are greatly anticipated and it’s not unusual for a Kafka pinstriped bike to spend little time on the sales floor before someone snatches it up.
It was fate that got Steve his start in pinstriping. A native of Massachusetts, he graduated from the Art Institute of Boston in 1969 with a degree in advertising design. After college he became art director for a 23-store chain gourmet cooking- equipment company called The Pot Shop. He also ran a large art gallery for the same company and supplemented his income by selling his own paintings in Boston galleries. He then opened The Last Craftsman leather shops, five stores in and around Boston. He also ran a nightclub called Scarborough Fair, Revere. As one of three managers, Steve did all the promo work for Aerosmith, who played there regularly.
Steve got his start in pinstriping by accident in 1975 when he and a friend flamed an old Ford pickup. They wanted to have it outlined but were discouraged by the cost, so Steve went down to the local art store for a pinstriping brush. While practicing on an old hood with Dulux enamel paint and a Grumbacher brush, a guy in a white Oldsmobile convertible pulled up and asked Steve if he was a pinstriper. Steve told him he was just practicing, but the Olds driver offered to pay him to paint the same designs on his car. Twenty minutes later Steve had earned $35 in cash. “A giant lightbulb went on over my head and I thought, hey, maybe I am a pinstriper,” he said.
About three years later, Steve, tired of advertising and New England weather, moved to Arizona. “I met Big Daddy Roth and all those people,” he said. “I was actually in a competition at a Rat Fink Reunion, and I was an auctioneer. We had a very friendly competition among all the pinstripers. I beat everybody for eleven years.” In addition to becoming friends with Ed Roth, Steve knew design genius Von Dutch and was a big fan of his. “I started my own style of pinstriping because I didn’t want to copy him,” he said. “Now, because of public demand, I don’t use his designs but I’m influenced by him and I have my own style.” Steve is such a fan of Von Dutch, he recently purchased the Von Dutch Bus, a 1953 GMC transit bus Von Dutch used for both home and work shop. Steve is restoring it and you can find his articles and photos of the restoration online at http://vondutchbus.com. “It was the first bus ever made with an automatic transmission,” Steve said. “Von Dutch lived and worked in it. He had a full machine shop inside…he built guns and knives and sold them, as well as doing his pinstriping and design work. We’re going to sell the nuts and bolts leftover from the bus after the restoration.”
At 62, Steve still teaches fine arts, having begun at the age of 21 back at the Sudbury Art Association in Massachusetts. He continues to foster an interest in pinstriping and is in contact with would-be pinstripers who range in age from 13 on up. “In three years we’ve sold 7,000 copies of my first instructional demonstration DVD,” he said. “They’re meant to stimulate and inspire, and that’s what’s been happening. Pinstriping was kind of dying out. The old master’s way was to not show anybody anything, you had to learn it all by yourself from scratch. We kind of all got together and said this is stupid, the art form is gonna die out. Custom pinstriping is one of the only true American art forms, Americans were the first to put wild designs on automobiles and now the rest of the world is picking up on it, it’s very big in Japan and huge in Europe now.” Steve has his own line of brushes, 20 in all, that are sold worldwide, and how-to DVDs as well. His new line of 20 hand-lettering brushes is in the works for 2010. The hand-lettering industry, he said, is being “trampled by the vinyl people,” who use a plotter and a computer to spit out lettering. “But there’s a tremendous influx of people who want to get back into the old school way of doing things.”
Steve’s company, Kafka Inc. is located in Phoenix, Arizona. Steve’s wife Pam is president of the company. In addition to a successful custom painting and supplies, Kafka Inc. is the maker of Kafka’s Kool Ties, a tubular scarf made of polymer crystals. After being soaked in water, the scarf is worn and keeps the body cool. The scarves are sold in CVS pharmacies and at www.kooltie.com. The couple has three children: Max, 28, a combat medic who is about to be deployed to Afghanistan; Ben, 26, a student on the dean’s list at Arizona State University College of Law; and Lily, 22, who is in college.
For more information about Steve, his pinstriping and his products, visit www.kooltie.com/kafka.