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The Low-Brow Art of Ger Peters
Pinstriping & Kustom Graphics Magazine

Lynda Johnson

Hailing from the small town of Heythuysen in the south of Holland, artist and illustrator Ger Peters is trying his best to help spread the gospel of the Kustom Kulture from his tiny corner of the planet.

In spite of his obvious drawing talent but never one to recognize the glaringly obvious, Ger had opted for Business School rather than Art School and his excellent grades led everyone into believing that he had a brilliant career in the corporate world reserved for him. However, the brilliant corporate career never materialized and from the long list of jobs and positions that he held after graduation, a pattern of smoking ruins started to emerge, slowly making it apparent that he would be far better off shifting his ambitions towards his creative abilities and the artistic aspects of his personality.

Always doodling and drawing, Ger had picked up an appetite for car-related art over the years with the usual American suspects as his heroes: Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Ed "Newt" Newton and Robert Williams. Ger's interest in kustom kulture was first sparked in the 1980's when the custom-van craze hit Holland. The colourful vans with the wild airbrushed murals suddenly pointed him the direction in which to aim with his own art. It didn't take long before he had bought an airbrush-kit and later on he acquired a can of One-Shot and a striping brush. For lack of like-minded gearheads in his peer-group or for whatever other reason, Ger never progressed into swapping his practice-panels for real cars and motorcycles. Instead, he got into screen-printing and computer-illustration and albeit he would later pick up the brushes again for canvas painting in oils and acrylics, that was the end of his airbrushing and pinstriping endeavours.

From the imported books and magazines on custom painting, Ger had acquired a taste for hot rods, kustoms and all things lowbrow: What great ways to express one's unique personal gearhead individuality!

Over the years, Ger had amassed a nice little portfolio of artwork and based on that, he was hired as an illustrator by a small company specializing in technical documentation. After working there for five years as a technical illustrator, the labour-intensive illustration work was being farmed-out to low-wage-rate India more and more and his job became obsolete, leading eventually to his dismissal.

With one little kid already here and another one in the making, Ger and his girlfriend decided that he would become a stay-at-home dad. To vent his creative urges and to generate some extra household income, Ger founded an illustration and design studio aptly named "Dutch Courage Graffix" working from the family home. Slowly but steadily building an international client-base, he specializes in Kustom Kulture related artwork.

The Kustom Kulture scene in Holland is slowly gaining momentum but is still nowhere near as big as in the UK or Scandinavia so if you would like to hire Ger Peters' graphic skills, point your web-browser to www.DutchCourageGraffix.com and drop him a line!
Pinstriping & Kustom Graphics Magazine September 2008
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