Dave Mann Wearable Art

In 2004 Easyriders magazine lost one of the greatest artists in biker history. Dave Mann died  of health issues. About the same time, I had to quit chasing stories because I was diagnosed with lupus, from painting cars. I have always had a great love for and felt a connection to Dave Mann for this reason.

Dave Mann’s dad was a lifelong illustrator and active member of the Society of Scribes in London. The younger Mann was born in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1957 he first drew pencil sketches of hot rods while feigning attention in high school. His crude sketches opened the door for Dave’s first job, pinstriping cars for Doug Thompson and Ray Hetrick’s custom car shop in Kansas City.  The wild allure of the West Coast drew Dave and buddy Al Burnett to Santa Monica, California. While cruising the seaside community he stumbled across Bay Area Muffler, an area custom car house, and there discovered completely insane chopped Harleys. The bikes drove him wild. They projected freedom, power and mobility with every chromed curve. He was immediately hooked. Dave Mann returned to Kansas City and bought his first new bike, a ’48 Panhead, for $350. At the same time he created his first painting, “Hollywood Run.” It represented the wild, unleashed, Hollywood outlaw lifestyle. Riding his customized Harley with his painting tucked under his arm, Dave entered the ’63 Kansas City Custom Car Show. That car show launched his artistic & biker career. Dave Mann had the only custom-bike entry in the show, so for his creative efforts the judges initiated a new class and trophy specifically for him.

 

Dave Mann painted several posters for Big Daddy Roth, the California custom car creator and publisher of the first chopper magazine.  In ’65, he went to work in the mailroom at Scheffer Studios in Kansas city, where he met an architectural renderer, Dave Poole, who taught him technical drawing.  By ’67, Mann developed into an architectural renderer, having studied at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Then in 1971, Dave discovered a new magazine— Easyriders.  And the rest as they say, is history– the two are now forever inseparable in any hardcore biker’s heart and mind.Easyriders was the first full-fledged, lifestyle-related bike rag.  Since Easyriders third issue, Dave Mann has led the biker magazine industry by capturing the essence of a changing lifestyle in the epic center-spreads.

Due to his failing health, Dave Mann was forced to retire from Easyriders in 2003 — the years of paint fumes had deteriorated his lungs to the point where surgeons had to remove them both and put him on a breathing machine.  Sadly, Dave died about a day after his 64th birthday, Sept. 11 2004.

 

Mann has always been known as a visionary who could tell a story with paint. He immortalized the lifestyle that is so quickly dying these days… the old school biker. His paintings are now an amazing piece of history that will ensure that stories are forever commemorated long after they are but secrets kept by ghosts around a million campfires across a billion miles through time.

I am tickled to death to announce that Affliction Clothing is teaming up with Easyriders and introducing a new line of clothing using Dave Mann paintings as wearable art at Sturgis this year… I plan on buying at least one!

Affliction Clothing has announced a collaboration with Easyriders Magazine to create an exclusive, limited edition collection featuring the artwork of David Mann from the Easyriders archives. The collection will capture the essence of the biker lifestyle and will maintain the design and manufacturing quality Affliction is known for.
David “Dave” Mann was a California graphic artist whose paintings celebrated biker culture, and choppers. Called “the biker world’s artist-in-residence,” his images are ubiquitous in biker clubhouses and garages, on motorcycle gas tanks, tattoos, and on t-shirts and other memorabilia associated with biker culture.
Choppers have been built based on the bikes first imagined in a David Mann painting
In 2004 Mann was inducted into the motorcycle Hall of Fame by artist Billy Lane.
Mann died a day after his 64th birthday. Just before his death a custom motorcycle was commissioned in his honor from Orange County Choppers, to be featured in an episode of the reality television series American Chopper. The “David Mann Bike” featured custom artwork in Mann’s style, but Mann died before it was completed. The vehicle served as a posthumous tribute to the artist, and his work was featured on the show.
The episode was dedicated to Mann as well as Indian Larry, who had died a month earlier.
The vintage motorcycle imagery of David Mann is widely considered as capturing the essence of the biker lifestyle and has been featured in the magazine for over 30 years. Easyriders Magazine was the first in the industry to capture the ever-changing hardcore biker lifestyle. Each graphic in the Affliction Easyriders Archive Collection is reinterpreted for printing by Affliction’s team of artists and is a distinctive work of art.
The intricate paintings of David Mann have been meticulously re-mastered ensuring the most authentic vintage biker tee possible. The garments are hand distressed and softened with various exclusive wash techniques that offer Affliction’s signature vintage fit and feel.
The Affliction Easyriders Archive Collection will debut at the Sturgis Bike Rally in August and will be available in stores where Affliction is sold.
– See more at: http://www.clutchandchrome.com/20140716112/News/Motorcycle-artist-David-Mann-honored-in-clothing-line.html#sthash.6y79eAtp.dpuf