When he’s not wrenching on his bikes, Shawn McKinney can be found hunched over his art table, knocking out work that distills his love for simpler times and outlaw values. He’s been featured in the book Motorcycle Graphics: Outsider Art, Graphics and Illustration, which I’ve covered HERE, and he’s also a member of The Arbor Collective, “… a growing cooperative of designers, artists and friends, whose shared goal is building rideable and wearable things from the best stuff possible.”
Like a worn out pair of old boots you just can’t part with, McKinney’s work has stories to tell. Like the day you found that dinged up tank at the swap meet which pushed a long stalled project back into motion, or the time you finally got to meet that old biker down the road who you grew up watching ride past your house. Shawn has an appreciation for the stuff that came before us. The stuff our older brothers or fathers turned us on to, and to the stories that have been passed down from one like-minded soul to the next. But the best stuff dudes like Shawn share with us is that those days we long for are still around, if only we slowed down to take a look.
