Little did Dr. Curtis Bullock know when he started spray-painting in 2019 that he would quickly develop into one of the sought-after bike painters within the trade. Higher generally known as @savethepostalservice, Bullock’s spectacular clientele consists of notable cyclists like Andy Schleck and Ayesha McGowan, alongside manufacturers reminiscent of Specialised, Vitus, State Bicycle Co., Chris King, Goodr and Miir.
Bullock’s daring and colour-popping work has garnered excessive demand but regardless of his fast success, he stays modest, referring to himself as “only a man in my storage taking part in with spray paint.”
Biking Weekly visited Bullock at his Portland, Oregon residence to learn the way this former highschool principal reworked right into a celebrated bike painter and to discover the inspirations behind his eye-catching designs.
Save the Postal Service
(Picture credit score: Specialised)
Reflecting on his journey, Bullock tells Biking Weekly that he was “all the time making issues.” Pottery, sketches, constructions, work – his palms not often sat idle, but his first endeavour in promoting his creations was a self-proclaimed flop.
Whereas working as a highschool instructor on the time, Bullock launched his @savethepostalservice Instagram account in 2018, focusing –because the identify may recommend– on mail and his handmade envelopes and stationery.
“I used to be taking books with actually nice colors and high quality paper and I might take them aside and make envelopes and letters,” Bullock explains. “Everybody loves getting mail, proper? It’s good and I actually made 1000’s of envelopes however nobody was .”
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Whereas his gross sales had been minimal, the expertise in organising the social media account and accompanying e-commerce web site would quickly show useful.
In 2020, Bullock painted his first bike: a Lemond Poprad disc he’d purchased particularly to color. He was instantly taken with the method and extra creations rapidly adopted, delighting his rising variety of followers.
(Picture credit score: Dr Curtis Bullock)
“One of many issues I believe that individuals responded to is that I am only a man in a storage,” Bullock says. “For a very long time I actually resisted utilizing a vinyl cutter or different extra superior instruments as a result of I wished my course of to be one thing others can do, too. I painted these bikes utilizing spray paint, a paper cutter, painter’s tape, some scissors and a few vinyl I purchased on-line. That’s it.”
“And that is undoubtedly the instructor in me, , the lesson being: do not simply sit there being amazed by what I do, you can also do that your self.”
However as a instructor, Bullock couldn’t afford to maintain shopping for bike frames. And so he took inspiration from New York artist Wizard Cranium, who reportedly painted on McDonald’s wrappers when he couldn’t afford artwork provides. His recommendation? ‘Paint on one thing, something.’
Curtis Bullock painted Miir mugs
(Picture credit score: Dr. Curtis Bullock)
And so Bullock made journeys to his native thrift retailer, bringing residence water bottles, espresso mugs and anything with shapes and curvature much like that of motorbike tubing.
Bullock significantly favoured Miir’s camp mugs and bought them in bulk. These mugs offered an reasonably priced canvas for Bullock to hone his type and creative expertise, and he reinvested any earnings from their gross sales again into artwork provides.
Legos and Pee Wee’s Playhouse
Ayesha McGowan’s Liv Langma bike frames painted by Curtis Bullock
(Picture credit score: Dr. Curtis Bullock)
When requested about his distinctive shiny, colour-blocking, Keith Haring-meets-Pop-Artwork type, Bullock factors to his childhood and the first colored bricks of Lego.
“To the exclusion of each different toy. Lego is the one factor I ever performed with once I was a child,” Bullock says.“[My generation] was the primary to have Lego. Whereas the plastic from the Seventies would develop into brittle and pale, Legos stay completely vibrant. So Lego and the color of that plastic is unquestionably an enormous a part of the inspiration.”
The opposite half? Pee Wee’s playhouse and its whimsical and eclectic inside bursting with shiny, daring colors and fantastical parts.
The web was taken with Bullock’s type and his work rapidly gained traction. The Miir mugs bought properly whereas requests for {custom} bike paint jobs got here in from followers across the globe.
In 2022, Bullock determined to stop his place as faculty principal on the Sabin-Schellenberg Skilled Technical Middle to complete his PhD adopted by a well-earned break from his profession endeavours to pursue his artwork. Fueled by clientele all around the world, Bullock launched into his first worldwide paint tour in January 2023. He’s been on three extra excursions since, portray bike frames throughout Europe.
All the things comes again to bikes
Rane Roatta’s Cannondale Topstone Lefty as raced within the 2022 UCI World Gravel Championships
(Picture credit score: Dr Curtis Bullock)
When requested about his connection to bikes, Bullock replied that all the things in his life will be traced again to bikes.
After a childhood spent pedalling across the neighbourhood, Bullock rediscovered bikes as a type of transportation whereas finding out on the College of Maryland. Reconnected with the enjoyment of being on two wheels, commuting was mountain biking which led to group rides, working at a motorbike store and, even, a welding course at Oregon’s United Bicycle Institute.
Though the lifetime of a motorbike welder wasn’t for him, bikes stay a steadfast presence in his life.
“What I want out of bikes has undoubtedly modified over time,” he displays. “Once I was educating, [my job] was so stimulating that I really by no means rode with different folks as a result of I simply wanted to be alone. Now it is nearly the other, the place with the ability to be extra social with folks on bikes is very nice.”
After which, in fact, there’s his artwork. Although more and more drawn to shapes aside from a motorbike body –his newest creations, for instance, embody watering cans and a sequence of Ikea lamps– Bullock hopes for bike trade collaborations the place his designs will be reproduced in scale. Proper now, each bit Bullock creates is splendidly distinctive but in addition tremendously time-consuming.
He meticulously maps out every colour-block and design aspect in a pocket book earlier than painstakingly chopping dozens of laser decals and portray every part layer by layer by layer.
Bullock admits that typically the method takes so lengthy that even he’s excited when it’s time to disclose the ultimate outcome.
“One of many issues I take pleasure in so much is that though I’ve the map of the venture, by the point I really unwrap it, I very steadily really do not keep in mind what’s below there,” he says with fun. “By the top, it is a shock to me, too.”
Whereas he’ll by no means cease creating authentic items, Bullock desires of scaling up his work, collaborating with industrial and inside designers, and finally being a full-time artist dwelling in Italy – a dream he’s working to make a actuality. “Just a few hundred extra bike paint jobs to go,” he jokes.
Need a piece of rideable Curtis Bullock artwork of your personal?
(Picture credit score: Dr. Curtis Bullock)
Bullock’s paintjobs are wildly intricate and laborious, so be ready to be affected person and shell out $2,200 – $2500 per bike body.
Within the meantime, his Columbus gravel “occasion forks”, lamps and mugs are on the market on Shopify wesbite, whereas Portland-based bikeshop CyclePath has a group of custom-painted Enve seatposts and stems on provide.
