The Great American Motorcycle Show Atlanta

Letterfly and Choppertown

Now that Candyse and Letterfly are home at ArtPark for the winter months, many thoughts, ideas and plans for the future are occurring. We are making plans to resume our seven-month tour of providing old-school pinstriping at Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealerships nationwide in 2022, starting with the guests who attend Thunder by the Bay in Sarasota with special emphasis on making Choppertown a memorable feature of that event, and later at Space Coast Harley-Davidson in Palm Bay, Florida during Daytona Bike Week.

As we sit around the campfire in the backyard and recall the many fond interactions enjoyed with old friends, exchanges with new acquaintances and the many artwork transactions that took place across the country while living the dream, a new thought occurs that may be of interest to you. As you are well-aware: traveling across this land, creating artwork and making people happy clearly qualifies as a labor of love. After reviewing the variety of questions fielded this season past, many of which are specific about our lives together on tour, I have been inspired to write an instructional booklet about our living, loving, and working together on the road. Hit the road and thrive will be about the lessons learned during fifty-years of combining travel with creativity and adventure. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of the book will be the description of the special connection that takes place when we let go of the daily distractions and keep our focus on the mystery of what is in front of us. Although I will be sharing experiences of being a traveling pinstriper, I intend to make the information contained in my book relevant to those of you attracted to the idea of combining your livelihood with the adventure of hitting the road. I already know that many of you enjoy regular road trips as a diversion in your lives.You value the wind in your face, the exhilaration of adventure and a oneness that is both spiritual in nature, a form of therapy and has become an important part of your lives. But what I seek to share is the something special that Candyse and I have found since we turned our backs on everything familiar and enjoy our seven-month vacation. We have found a rare connection with our surroundings, the moment we are in and each other due to being completely immersed in the adventure, mystery, and lure of the unknown.

Since the book is still in the embryonic stages and I credit you, our friends, customers, and allies with the inspiration to create such a work, I plan to expand on what is occurring to me by inviting you to participate as I write the content of this book. As I write each chapter, I shall post my progress in my “Tales of a Traveling Airbrush” newsletter. I invite you to give me your impression of each snippet, ask questions and encourage me to reveal specific concepts and items that perhaps haven’t occurred to me. That way when the book is done, it promises to be the best that it can be.

If you like this addition to the newsletter and want to be involved, please let me know. Simply stop by our booth at Choppertown and ask to be included on our email mailing list. We would love to see and hear from you. As you are aware, I savor the moments when I am in your proximity pulling beautiful lines on bikes, blending colors that become pictorial images, and crafting the letters that convey the message you want to get across to the world. In a way this book will be carrying your purpose into the world; to make this a better place for everybody. And by collecting all the thoughts that exist about the lure of the highway, we can make a handbook that will inform, entertain and inspire others to find what we have found; our way to not only succeed but thrive on the highway.

—Dave “Letterfly” Knoderer

Georgia’s Biggest Indoor Motorcycle Show