- My first paying job was a motorcycle that I had to do and I wiped more paint off of it than I actually ended up leaving on it, and that job took me probably from sun up to sundown.

If I was to do that today, I could probably be done in two hours.

My mom has always done different kinds of art On top of that, she's always been the most supportive person.

My biggest fan, maybe my grandfather was also an artist.

He carved tombstones and monuments and I got to go to work with him a good bit.

When I was growing up, a lot of what he had to do was letters and numbers, of course, and that's what I do.

I wish that I appreciated what he did as much then as I do now.

But yeah, there was a little Igor running around the graveyards while the tombstones were getting carved.

My dad and uncle were always into cars, whether it was drag racing or hot rods and muscle cars.

Since I liked art, there's so many cars with cool lettering on 'em and flames, so I think my world's just kind of collided and sign painting is what I got out of it.

You do a little bit of everything.

I, I get to paint on plenty cars and motorcycles, but then might have to paint somebody's portrait or do a sign for the front of their shop.

You never, ever know what you're gonna see in here for the the next job.

My customer has a business called Lawyer Garage.

He really is just on the lookout for the most insane cars out there.

This was one of the first cars that I did for him.

And fast forward to present day.

I've done over a hundred cars.

Really just a little bit of everything.

I can't even explain it at this point.

I've done so much work for him that he just brings it in and tells me to do something and he leaves.

I've painted a little portrait of Erie Newman with his army helmet on and cool part of the Mad Magazine stuff.

Kelly Freeze that painted Alfred E. Newman for Mad Magazine for a long time, actually lived in Virginia Beach.

Just a cool piece of history.

You cannot put any barriers on what he gets, and this is along the crazier side of things.

It's a part old lawnmower and part V eight Chevy Motor, and it's just called the thing.

The Munsters coach up here is definitely one of my favorite ones that I've done.

It's got gold leaf on it and it's got stripe in and the Munster's logo, all the spiderwebs around the windows and the mirrors and the headlights, and then on the back it's got portraits of all the Munsters.

It's a rotating collection.

You just can't keep up with the cars that he has.

It's massive.

The VB Flea started that with Aaron next door at the North End bag.

First one we had, we might have had 10 or 12 vendors sitting in the parking lot right in front of my shop.

We only planned on having one, but when that was done we were like, ah, let's have another one.

Here we are nine years later doing a day flea market and a night flea market.

Each month, the day market, there's three other markets that go on the same time during tourist season.

When those other markets are going on along with mine, there's four to 5,000 people that come through for that thing.

There's another one that I started doing across the street that goes on at the same time.

It's called the Misfits Market, and that one is more artists and makers.

It's just a mix of stuff.

So when the day market is going on with the misfits market, that's probably 90 vendors that I've got right there.

WRV.

They're our landlord.

They have been incredible to us.

They have given us such a amazing opportunity to be in this building and now the flea market has turned into their biggest shopping day every month.

It's really an amazing community thing.

The night market, that's a whole nother animal.

It's still a flea market.

It still takes up the entire parking lot.

It's a little bit more of a party atmosphere than the day one.

It is more of like the older crowd looking to go out and have some dinner and a couple drinks and rummage through the market or something.

Another cool thing that's happened with the markets, they have inspired at least half a dozen.

It might even be more of our vendors to open up their own storefront.

So they built up their brand and built up their confidence.

It's amazing that it has helped people get to that position.

Somebody brought me a Christmas ornament and they asked me, can you paint something on this for me?

And I was like, ah, guess I can.

And I don't remember if they wanted something nasty painted on that or the way my mind works.

That's usually the way I lean too.

I just started painting all these vulgar sayings on there.

They're not for everybody.

People that take life way too serious don't come in, but there's plenty of people that do appreciate 'em.

It's really a fun time of the year, just the comments from people coming in and you get to hear 'em on the other side of the shop just reading through 'em and laughing.

People get 'em for gift exchanges, and it's been 10 years now.

Do 500 of 'em every Christmas.

My xxx Miss Balls have become quite the thing.

A guy I walked into my shop and he's like, oh, you should come to class.

He's like, ah, yeah, I'll, I'll come in sometime.

Before that, I had a serious gym regiment.

I was working with nutritionists and going in there six days a week, so I finally make it into my first class at Juujitsu and I left there.

I knew that I was never going back to the gym at all.

It's super intimidating.

Walked in there the first time you're going in there on your own to get your ass kicked, which is so weird sounding, but you get your ass kicked by people that care about you and people that are trying to teach you the art of juujitsu.

You're not punching people in the face, you're not kicking people in the leg.

Jiu-Jitsu is there to stop a fight to incapacitate somebody.

Besides that knowledge, the support system that you get in there is amazing.

To me, that's the coolest thing about Jiu-Jitsu.

Everybody in there has leaned on somebody else once or many times, - Turn all the way, - All the way.

360, 360, let go.

Gustavo Machado, my Jiu-Jitsu teacher, just the the person that he is, just an amazing person.

It was important with me to get my mind in a better place 'cause it's, it's not always there.

It's like painting.

I think painting helps me out with that a lot.

Start on a job and you just kind of get lost in it.

The Jiu-Jitsu, you go in there and you're just surrounded by all your buddies and you got other things to worry about.

Then your mind drifting off into a bad place.

So that is what it's done for me the most.

The vibe being here since the beginning.

This is such a, a huge thing for me.

I'm very proud to say that I'm a part of it.

This is my little world and everything that I need is right here.

A lot of the people that I've done stuff for have been people that I've admired or looked up to, so that makes it super special too.

I've done work for Chase Rice, Danny Ricardo, the F1 driver.

I painted a a guitar for him.

I painted a pair of boots for him and we did a huge neon sign that got hung in front of Dirks Bentley's bar on on Broadway in Nashville.

Did a sign for Cooper Manning.

Gibson sent me 14 guitars, so I painted guitars for Brothers Osborne for Shaboozey, Post Malone, Muscadine Bloodline, Priscilla Block.

I appreciate what those guys do and yeah, it means a lot to me to get those jobs.

Definitely a feeling of justification in there.

It gives me a opportunity to be like, look where you were and look where you are.

Which I don't think I take enough time to do that.

So yeah, I need to think about that more.