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and me. I learned watercolors and oils and all that stuff during third and fourth grade after school.” In the fifth grade, he sold his first painting. “I think it was for something like five bucks at a garage sale. I was getting a quarter a week allowance, so five bucks was huge. I bought a G.I. Joe model airplane and I thought this was the way to go, man.”

PAINTING T-SHIRTS ON THE BEACH

Flash forward to 1977. A friend sent 20-year-old Mickey to meet the owner of a t-shirt shop on the beach in Florida. “I told him I wasn’t an airbrush artist, but that I was an artist. He put me in the back of his shop and I practiced for three days. Everybody there was painting little beach scenes, sticking up a sun, some palm trees, lines for seagulls, and putting people’s names on them. Heck, I never paid any attention to that stuff. Instead, trying to figure out how the airbrush works, I painted a picture of a knight on a chariot with skis and polar bears pulling him through the snow.” The owner returned on the third day, looked at Mickey’s work and was shocked at the originality. He put Mickey in the front window the next day and told him to “Keep doing what you’re doing and I’ll give you 100 percent of the money you make.” According to Mickey, “He put me in the front window like a trained monkey as an attraction because no one had seen airbrush work like that back in those days. Working in the front window, there were times

Two panels painted by Mickey Harris on “The Weapon,” Mark Ulmer’s championship tractor from the Outlaw tractor pulling circuit.

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Mickey Harris at work in his studio on the hood of a Ford Bronco for the Wounded Warrior Family Support Group. The hood includes a rendition of the original Purple Heart patch (upper right) and the traditional Purple Heart medal with George Washington’s profile. It also includes the outline of a Fallen Soldier Table, which honors American military personnel who have perished in battle, been taken prisoner and never returned, or other soldiers who have gone missing and not come home. The Purple Heart on the hood took Mickey about two days to paint after meticulous preparation.

I would think it was clouding up – and I’d turn around to look and there’d be 50-60 people standing there with gaping mouths looking at what I was doing.” Painting in front of people was intimidating. “But I jumped into the fire. I learned I could make money on my artwork, which I never knew if I’d have the opportunity to do. It’s been 45, 46 years since then and I’m still doing it,” Mickey said. From about 2001 to 2010, he was “making great money” teaching airbrush painting seminars all over the country. “Everybody wanted to be an airbrush artist and custom painter because of television shows. I had no shortage of students.” Shannon and Brent from Classic Collision & Frame in Menno attended one of his classes being held in Nebraska. The next year when they saw he was coming back, they got in touch with Mickey and asked him if he’d come to Menno to do a special paint job. “I think it was a ’67 Firebird. We agreed on a price and after I finished the seminar in Nebraska, I drove up here to Menno.”

He said the crew at Classic Collision knows what they’re doing when it comes to auto restoration – Mickey requires the highest quality cars, motorcycles, trucks and tractors to work on because his paint jobs can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

ESCAPING THE EPIDEMIC

After several years of doing occasional work for Classic , it just so happened he and his wife were looking for a new place to live. At the time, their home was in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. They loved it there, but crime was rising dramatically because of the opioid craze. “We could never leave our house alone. People would break in and take everything we had,” he said. “In Tennessee, the pot growers and the moonshiners have a code of ethics, but the opioid addicts will kill you for another pill or another shot. It was such an epidemic.” Mickey and his wife, Laura, have lived in Menno for 10 years and they appreciate how Midwestern people share their conservative values. “I like it here. It’s pretty quiet and you don’t have to worry as much about crime. The cool thing about these small towns is everybody looks out for everybody. If you have a big storm come through, the next day everybody’s out helping everybody else. Nobody calls FEMA or wonders who is going to take care of them. People here take care of themselves.” However, he did admit: “My wife’s not real happy with the weather. She calls it God-forsaken, especially this wind.” Mickey is currently in the midst of painting a Ford Bronco for the Wounded Warrior Family Support Group out of Omaha. The vehicle is designed to be a tribute to the 13 Marines who lost their lives during

SEASONS ON THE FARM

Mickey Harris recently completed a 3-part mural behind the service counter at Freeman International. Part one is spring (at right). Part two includes summer and fall (center). Part three shows a winter scene (lower left). The paintings took him about two weeks to complete.