Artist’s Successful Business Got Its Start In Kindergarten

On the first day of kindergarten, George Roybal’s teacher asked each child to draw a picture. She chose Roybal’s to pin up and, ever since, he has known he had a home in the world of art.

Now 40-something and a resident of Newman Lake, Roybal does work that he loves: art, with an airbrush.

For the past three weeks, his art has been flowing onto both sides of a semi-trailer.

Parked by his shop at Pines and 16th, the trailer is alive with bears, bucks and ducks, wildfire smoke and mountain wildflowers.

Drive by anytime this weekend and you’re likely to find Roybal hard at it. His client and the owner of the trailer, Rainier Seeds Inc. of Davenport, Wash., has given him a tight deadline.

Roybal interrupts his work - he’s shading in the brown belly of a mallard - to talk. It’s afternoon. Roybal is on the west side of the trailer. And even under the blue tarp he has rigged for shade, it’s hot.

“Sometimes, I just go work on the shady side,” he admits.

Roybal got his start in airbrushing at car shows. He’s done murals for McDonald’s, helmets for Harley riders and T-shirts 46 days straight at Christmastime in the Silver Lake Mall.

“I really learned how fast you have to work, to be able to make any money in this business,” he says.

He’s been asked to restore glinting colors to an antique fishing lure, and he’s turned down requests that he considers obscene or in bad taste.

“There’s a twist to the story,” Roybal says, with a grin. “I worked for UPS for 15 years.” Six years ago, he quit and moved from Redmond, Wash., to Spokane. On a week when his former co-workers are on strike, Roybal’s work seems sweet, indeed.

He shifts the airbrush into his left hand and flexes tired muscles in his right arm. He knows he’ll be working horrific hours this weekend to get the trailer done on time.

“I was really poor growing up. So my family moved around a lot. And at each new school, I would make a beeline for the art class. I couldn’t wait to see who I was up against.” Then, once the other art kids realized his talent, he would fit in.

Roybal has grown into teaching, himself. He knows there are still kids out there who grasp onto art as though it’s a lifeline.

About six years ago, “I gave a few lessons to a boy whose name was Jared. Then I didn’t hear from him for a few weeks. Then his mom called and said ‘I don’t know what you did, but before Jared came to you he was suicidal and now he’s not. I can’t thank you enough.’

“That was the neatest thing that ever happened to me,” Roybal says. He teaches at Spokane Art Supply, and travels the country - to Tennessee most recently - to deepen his own understanding of color theory and to participate in air brush shows.

Behind his success, says Roybal, is his wife, Pam. They’ve been married almost 20 years and have two teenage boys, Derek and Daren.

And his art? “It’s a gift from God.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo