BOMONSTER is a California artist who grew up watching his dad build his own race cars during the week and then race them on the weekends at drag strips all over Southern California. At San Gabriel, Lions, Colton, Fontana and Pomona's now legendary strip, he witnessed the rise of many great racers like Doug "Cookie" Cooke, Tom "Mongoose" McEwen, and Don "The Snake" Prudhomme. And he watched famous cars like the "Hemi Under Glass" Barricuda and the "Little Red Wagon" Dodge van/truck wheelie their way into the collective history of today's drag racing buffs.

 

It was during those formative years that BOMONSTER discovered a new art form being perpetrated on young minds everywhere: hot rod art. From t-shirt artists to comics, model cars and tattoos, the beginning of a self-taught, lowbrow, no rules art style based on the tire-smoking performance of hopped-up cars began to find its way into the world of surfing, skateboarding, enthusiast magazines and hobby shops across the country.

 

Guys like Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Ed Newton, Robert Williams, Robert Crumb, Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin, Pete Millar  - and a generation of sick artists since -  all added to what Tex Avery and Basil Wolverton had explored years before - a surreal take on a world obsessed with cars, girls, monsters and the bizarre.

The appeal of the hot rod is found by honoring tradition but adding a personal touch which not only creates a personalized expression but allows the viewer to see something new in something familiar.  Much like the art of BOMONSTER.