The name in flames

You’re stopped at a red light at Sprague and Sullivan and it passes in front of you. You crane your neck to get a better look. Yep, it’s a pimped-out Kenworth truck. Are those flames? Sweet! You want to pull a maneuver; chase it down and pull up beside it to bask in its glory, but you have an appointment to keep. Don’t worry; you’ll see it again.

There are at least a dozen of them that drive around the area. They wear multi-colored flames, a tattered American flag, or flames that change from copper-red to green, depending on the angle. Some of the flames trail from behind distorted skulls or basketballs. They were all created by airbrush artist George Roybal, whose shop, Illustrated Air, is at 1511 S. Pines Road.

John Harris, owner of Sunrise Trucking and Contracting Inc., has commissioned Roybal to paint many of his trucks.

“We attract the best of the best,” he said, “We don’t even advertise. People see the trucks and want us. His work helps us to stand out.”

Brad Pinney, owner of Conveyored Aggregate Delivery of Spokane Inc., agreed.

“It makes us look good, and when we’re contracting for another company, it makes them look good.” His employees take pride and care for the rigs that they drive. “Even our dump trucks are cool,” Pinney said.

Rick Dawson, body shop manager at Kenworth Sales Co. on East Broadway, often watches Roybal work on the trucks. “He’s so artistic, talented and professional. It’s amazing to watch him work, he makes it look so easy.”

The prestige of a Roybal airbrushing is worth the added cost. Anyone would agree that, parked at a work site, a truck that doubles as a work of art gains more respect than others, and may even be less likely to drip oil.

Besides airbrushing trucks that gain respect, Roybal has gained respect from his peers. He was chosen, along with 17 other air-brush artists, to grace the pages of Tim Phelps’ book “Up in Flames: the Art of Flame Painting.” Though the book was just released, 2,700 copies were ordered before it even hit the shelves. It is a hard-back coffee table book with glossy colored photos of exceptional flame work.

The book says that in Roybal’s work “angry barking dogs, realistic renderings of automobile and engine parts, stone effects, or checkered flags and liquid splashes can all be interwoven into any mural he creates…embossed flames, tribal flames, alien flames, metallic flames, realistic flames, fire and ice flames, and flames with no dictated color, because any color burns just as hot… .”

Well known in his field, Roybal still gives back to his community, teaching his craft at Spokane Arts, Too in the Valley and at the Skills Center.

“The strangest job I’ve done in the last year has got to be painting a casket,” Roybal said. He traveled to Walla Walla where he used red, black, and white to airbrush the casket of his brother, who died of cancer. The design was an Indian story wheel depicting the Creator’s Son’s journey.