An artist has combined her love for wheels and painting to help Okotoks area charities.
Cheyanne-Autumn Patterson, a 19-year-old graduate of the Alberta High School of Fine Arts at the Comp, painted a motorcycle gas tank and a toolbox to be auctioned off at the Olde Towne Okotoks Poker Rally - Show 'n Shine on Aug. 17-18.
"As soon as I figured out I could paint and draw and my dad got me into vehicles, I thought, 'I wonder if I could do this on a car or maybe a bike,'" Patterson said. "And I got the chance to do it, so I am really excited."
The proceeds from her work will go towards Okotoks Kinsmen charities. The auction is Aug. 17 at The George Traditional House after the poker rally.
Patterson painted the gas tank and toolbox at Clancy's Hot Rod and Custom Shop in Okotoks. It's a shop where some young men and women are spending time, building relationships and learning about many a young person's passion — things on wheels.
She was offered to do the paintings by Clancy's owner Scott Maxwell.
""It will help get my name out there and it also shows people what goes on here (at Clancy's)," Patterson said.
The gas tank is painted with one side having a scene from the Arizona desert and the other the galaxy. Both sides are surrounded by black with a skull. On the top is a horse's skull.
"Everyone here helped me with the idea—one guy said let's do skulls, the other lets do the galaxy and my friend Tommy said, let's do Arizona—it matched the same colours as the nebula," she said.
The toolbox has on one side a painting of a trail at Elbow Falls. On the other side, the trail opens up into a scenic but slightly stormy view.
"That's my favourite because it's a memory," she said. "I remember we were just coming off a trail on horseback and we saw this big beautiful cloud rolling in... I love nature."
Eighteen-year-old Micah Schleppe is tinkering with Maxwell's dream car for the show 'n shine, a 60s Ford Fury.
"We're putting some decals on it, we turning it into the Death Cab, because it is the theme of the car, Christine — a cool book you should read it," said Schleppe, a Comp grad attending Lakeland College. "Scott wants to get a little crazy with it, a top banner, decals on both side windows, a banner on the back and then splatter it with red paint.
He was stunned to work on Maxwell's baby.
"To be honest, I was flabbergasted at first, but after the car show, we're going to tear the car down and restore it to factory, as if it has come off the showroom floor—in Scott's eyes," Schleppe said.
"There's nothing cooler than working on a car that's been around for God knows how long."
Schleppe works during the day, but often comes to Clancy's to visit and tinker.
"It means quite a bit," Schleppe said of the shop. "A bunch of our buddies run a car club and they come here now."
Maxwell said opening his doors is an opportunity to give young people a chance to hangout.
"It's kind of like - 'hey, I was you once, let's try it,''' Maxwell said. "These aren't kids who are rippin' up and down the streets, they are hanging out and learning something."
Will Wierenga, a graduate of the Comp where he won the mechanics award for excellence, is working at Clancy's.
"I'm trying to learn from Scott — anything from painting of cars to working on engines," Wierenga said. "It's been a wide-expansive experience for what I can work on."
Show N' Shine
The festivities for the annual Show 'n shine will start Aug. 17 with a burn out at noon in the Southbank area.
Registration for the burn out is at 11 a.m.
Following the burn out is the poker rally with registration starting at 3 p.m. The event will end at The George Traditional House where the auction will take place.
The following day is the main attraction.
Hundreds of cars and trucks, from vintage to hot rods, will participate in the annual show 'n shine at Olde Towne Okotoks. The show 'n shine is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Registration is at 7 a.m.
For further information go to okotoksshowandshine.ca
