Between the Races: Chris Wood

Airtrix painter Chris Wood’s work is seen on and under a slew of top motorsports athletes, but he’s no stranger to the big-screen variety of celebrity as well, from Nicolas Cage’s tank in Ghost Rider to the slew of bikes in the June 2009 film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. That last project got him closer than ever to Hollywood stardom, but the guy who was kicked out of art class as a kid still believes in art for the people.

RRX: Talk a bit about your latest projects.
Chris Wood: The most exciting had to be the Transformer thing, but the very latest projects, let’s see…. Well, there was the Nitro Circus stuff; I did all the helmets for that crew, Travis Pastrana and all those people—the three-quarter helmets for the new season, which is airing tomorrow—and that was cool. Then there’s all the Red Bull stuff I do, which means working with really cool athletes, and then obviously back to the movie thing, which was really, really big for us, to get to be a part of Transformers. I even worked on set with Megan Fox when she was supposed to be airbrushing these bikes in this one scene, just kind of helping out with that.

How did you get involved in that project initially?
I was approached by Will Kenefick from RetroSBK. I’ve painted all his bikes for years—he specializes in doing tribute bikes—and he was approached by Dreamworks through the Robb Report, and since I’d been his friend and painter for many years, he naturally had me do it. I thought it was just a bunch of BS at first, like “Yeah, whatever, just tell me where to show up,” but then we went to [Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen director] Michael Bay’s office, and I knew then that it was the real deal.

If you know about Michael Bay, the guy is gnarly; he is a picky, picky guy who knows what he wants and won’t settle for anything less. So we went to his office, he told me exactly what he wanted on the bikes, and Dreamworks provided the artwork. We had about three and half weeks to do six bikes: what you call the “hero bike” for all the photos, and then the actual bikes that were used in the movie. And out of forty vehicles, those six bikes were the only things he didn’t scrutinize; they were perfect, and he loved everything we did. So that was cool, to have Michael Bay kind of bless us with his approval. It meant a lot, and hopefully we can do more movie work later on—that’d be great.

What was your on-set experience like?
Well, there was a scene where I raised my hand and actually protested, because Megan Fox was bent over the bike in her daisy-duke shorts airbrushing, and…. Okay, this bike was built by a guy down in LA, right? And then I had to airbrush this devil girl on the side of the tank, and then in the scene, Megan Fox mimicked like she was airbrushing it. And I was like, “People, this is a flaw in the movie, because when you airbrush, the tank’s off the bike and the clearcoat’s already on there. It’s gonna look hokey.” And in some of the reviews, people actually picked up on that. I wanted them to pinstripe, was my thought, because you can do that over the clear and get the same effect, but who am I? They didn’t listen to me [laughs].

But you were there to help make it look authentic?
Yeah, and she really didn’t do…. Well, another thing: the cap fell off while they were filming—the cap of the airbrush that’s on there so the paint doesn’t spill out—but I didn’t even…. I mean, the sun was going down, everyone was yelling, and I didn’t have the guts. Not again. So that was it—I just waited around for fifteen hours for about twenty minutes of fame. Then I was dismissed, and that was it.

So it wasn’t your most glamorous moment.
No, no, not by a long shot [laughs], but the rest was cool. On the six bikes we put in about 80 hours per bike, so about 480 hours total. We worked a lot—a lot. My guys did a damned good job.

How many guys do you have working for you now?
I have four in my new shop here, four guys plus myself. I do all the designing still, all the pin striping, all the fine work, and my guys can pretty much take my design and lay it on a helmet or bike. I’m still a big part of it because that’s my name on the piece, and I just want to keep growing, plus I definitely want to pursue my art—my oil paintings and even vector designs on the computer—and I want to stay involved in the motorsports industry, but I also want to branch out to be more diverse and reach people in lots of different fields.

What are you doing that’s road race- or street bike-specific?
I’m doing a lot of replica work for Vemar, Shoei, and Suomy—doing Ben Bostrom’s new replica that’ll be out next year—plus Jamie Hacking and the usual guys, and then with Red Bull I do a ton of other motorsport riders—Pastrana, Bubba Stewart, lots of the Red Bull Jams kids….

What would you tell readers who thinks custom helmets are only for people who are either famous or loaded?
That I work with everyone—I want people to have my work. I can’t give you a $400 paint job for $80—I couldn’t stay in business doing that—but I really want to let people know that yeah, I am expensive, but I do really good work and I want to work with everyone. If you have an idea, let’s try to work on a budget together, but let’s get it done. If you want something, I’m willing to work with people, for sure.

Learn more about Chris and check out his work at www.airtrix.com.