Artist brings ‘Deadliest Catch’ to life on Camaro

WASILLA — Some Alaskans create art that sells for a few hundred or a few thousand dollars.

But for Ken Ottinger, owner of Ottworks Custom Paint, just the canvas for his most recent work of art retails for $30,000 to $40,000.

And that’s before the loaded 2011 Chevy Camaro 2SS got a new custom paint job, cold air intake, dual exhaust, tinted windows and a couple of engine modifications that will up the torque and horsepower of the car’s 6.2-liter V8.

Since he started in the airbrushing business, Ottinger has applied paint to everything from motorcycle gas tanks to snowmachine cowlings and an assortment of helmets and snowboards.

“I can airbrush anything paint will stick to,” he said.

But Ottinger had never painted anything quite like what Edward “Eddie” Uwekoolani — a crew member from the fishing vessel “Time Bandit,” which is owned by brothers Andy and Jonathon Hilstrand — wanted on the new Camaro he purchased and planned to take along on The Captains Tour to promote their Discovery Channel show “Deadliest Catch.”

“He gave me a lot of leeway,” Ottinger said. “He handed me the keys and said ‘Design me a car.’”

So the Wasilla artist created an image in Photoshop and emailed it to Uwekoolani.

While The Captains Tour is designed to help market the Discovery Channel’s popular reality show, thanks to Uwekoolani, it will also showcase Alaska artists like Ottinger, Perry’s Rod and Custom, Phat Customz and Total Truck and Accessories, which also worked on the Camaro.

“It was important to Eddie to keep his business in Alaska and bring attention to the fact that while Alaska may be somewhat disconnected from the Lower 48 states they are anything but behind,” Ottinger said. “I think that’s the coolest thing, it was all done in Alaska.”

Since he got Uwekoolani’s call in July, Ottinger said he estimates he’s spent 250 to 300 hours designing, preparing and painting the one-of-a-kind ride.

“It purrs and it has power,” he said.

Under the hood, Ottinger also painted a surprise for Uwekoolani: the engine covers sport the skull and crossbones from the Time Bandit logo painted in electric blue with true fire flames.

“People love the true fire,” Ottinger said.

On the car’s doors, the fishing vessel’s skull-and-crossbones logo is repeated again — this time in paint that glows in the dark — along with the words “Time Bandit.”

The hood is Ottinger’s Mona Lisa. It repeats the skull and crossbones and Time Bandit name from the side panels and adds a seascape of the renowned fishing vessel and a pocket watch with no hands.

Look close at the pocket watch and you’ll notice it has no hands and the date is set to 00. “It represents the Time Bandit stealing time,” Ottinger said.

Ottinger has always been an art fan. He’s always loved to draw, but never dreamed he’d make his living as an artist.

“I went to college chasing a baseball career,” said the Oregon Duck who moved to Alaska in 1993.

Things took a turn after the stay-at-home dad painted his kids’ room with Jungle Book characters. His sister-in-law saw the work and bought him an airbrush kit as a gift in 2003. And by 2004, he was accepting commissions for his airbrush work.

“I’m at the point where I am just busy enough,” he said. “This is all I do.”

Largely self-taught, Ottinger said he also travels to Las Vegas a couple of times a year to take airbrush classes from the best in the business.

Usually, he said the process is to apply a base coat, then a clear coat, apply the airbrush work, followed by an additional clear coat. But on the Time Bandit Camaro, Ottinger said he was working without the safety net that first clear coat provides, he said.

“There was no room for error,” he said.

Ottinger said he’s working to make his airbrush work look as realistic as possible, but the work on the Time Bandit Camaro stretched his skills like never before.

“Trust me. It’s been stressful. Even drying it makes me nervous,” he said, wiping a drop of water off the hood with a microfiber cloth.

For more information visit ottworkscustompaint.com.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.