Profiles

The Timeless Art of Steve Bachman

What starts in the family, stays in the family. It started with his grandfather, a political cartoonist with the Johnsonville Tenn. Times for 41 years. His uncle and an aunt followed suite and are now professional artists. His brother and sister both paint and Steve himself has often thought that

"everybody draws, that's just something people do"
Well Steve, not everyone draws.

Certainly, very few have the gift that he has when it comes to a paintbrush, or an airbrush gun, as the case may be. This self-taught gifted artist has never attended a single art class. Yet, he has painted over 50 motorcycles and too many cars and trucks to count. But undoubtedly, motorcycles are his favorite.

This former City of Valdosta fireman is a devoted family man, married to wife Chris for 12 years, and his children, Jamey (son) 17, Savannah (daughter) age 12, and new addition to the family, young Gunnar, still less than 1 year old. You may remember Gunnar, who has a rare liver disease. The local biker community had a Poker Run for young Gunnar in November. He is doing well for now, but still faces a long battle.

Steve, now a part owner in RNR Tattoos in Valdosta, has been painting bikes and doing tattoos for the past seven years. The self professing military brat now calls Valdosta his hometown, as he has been here longer than any other place. It was while a fireman for the City of Valdosta that he got the bug to use his artistic abilities professionally. He realized this while painting murals on the walls of the local fire stations. He began doing tattoos and was soon asked to paint a helmet for a friend. It turned out so well that others began to request his services. Painting helmets became painting gas tanks and Steve's love for motorcyles and for painting evolved into what it is today. Steve is hardly your initial image of a biker/tattoo artist, but he is definitely a sought-after commodity in the motorcycle community for custom paint jobs.

One important thing about Steve's work is - we are talking "Old School." An important aspect of most paint jobs is pin-striping, but Steve will not duplicate any work, each job is original and each pin stripe is hand painted. You won't find any decals or cookie-cutter templates in Steve's work. With a Steve Bachman paint job, you are guaranteed to have a one-of-a-kind original custom paint job. And if you hang around for a few more years, the family tradition will be handed down yet again. Steve's daughter, Savannah, has begun learning the art of pin-striping.

When asked about unique jobs that he had done, Steve was especially proud of the Hum-Vee door that he was asked to paint for a squadron from Moody AFB. He was given free reign to paint as he pleased and the results can be seen pictured below. His work was taken to Iraq and displayed at the squadron headquarters to help inspire our soldiers.

Clearly, one of his favorite situations is to be given free reign to allow his artistic mind to wonder. This was the case with the Skulls/Betty Boop motorcycle. The owner had no idea of what he wanted, he only had to tell Steve what he liked and disliked and Steve took control and created this extraordinary work of art. Steve likes to have the ability to "paint what I want, allowing my mind to take over, with nothing holding me back." The results are plain to see and Steve counts this as one of his favorite jobs because of two situations. The first being the freedom that he was allowed and the second being the level of satisfaction his customer, the bike owner, felt when he first saw the end results.

Steve does custom paintwork for other types of vehicles as well. He has custom painted numerous cars and trucks and will actually go to your body shop and do the custom work. And he does a complete job. If your bike has dings or dents, each will be repaired professionally and you will never know it existed. The level and technique of sanding used will create a glassy “reach right through it” appearance.

So,,, we all take a high level of pride when it comes to our bikes and if you have gotten the “bug” of customizing your ride - we strongly recommend a custom and original paint job from the Timeless Art of Steve Bachman.