Red Deer artist's quirky work inspires creation of hot rod club
Butch Henry of Red Deer is a hot rod builder and an artist. Three years ago he put his artistic talents to use and made a one-off car club plaque to give his 1929 Model A hot anode rod an air of authenticity. He didn’t realize that plaque would inspire the creation of the Outkasts Car Club of Red Deer. The club fashioned itself after traditional custom car groups who simply hung out together, cruised together, and helped each other build their vehicles. “My art is pretty low key and it only occupies about two per cent of my life,” Henry says with a laugh from his Red Deer home. “I do a bit of hot rod pin striping and I paint pictures of hot rods on canvas using one-shot sign painter’s enamel – that baffles the hell out of what I call ‘real’ artists.” He also carves Tiki totems, both large and small, some for home decoration and others as gearshift knobs. The bigger Tikis are carved from Alberta poplar, while many of his gearshift knobs are carved from harder Manitoba maple. “I’m self ...