Artist Pamelina H and the Fender Custom Shop

by Tom Wheeler, John Page and Tom Watson

Foreword
by Tom Watson

There was no such thing as a Fender Custom Shop Art Guitar when Pamelina H first met the then Custom Shop manager John Page in 1987. Chances are, there would be no Fender Custom Shop Art Guitars today, as we know them, had that meeting not taken place. The contemporary-style artwork of Pamelina H has been, and continues to be, the essence of many of the most significant Art Guitars produced by Fender.

I have spoken about the guitar as art and Art Guitars before and have presented a biographical sketch of Pamelina H in a previous article. The introduction by noted guitar author Tom Wheeler, the contribution by Fender Custom Shop icon John Page, and my interview of Pamelina H will help provide an inside glimpse of the multi-talented person behind the well-known signature "Pamelina H".

Introduction
by Tom Wheeler

In "The Stratocaster Chronicles", longtime Fender associate Bill Carson recalled: “Leo used to say, if we’ve only got a hundred dollars to develop this item, it’s got to be reliable, and . . . we will spend as much of that hundred dollars as necessary to get that. If we’ve got four or five dollars left over, we’ll work on the cosmetics.” Among aspects of the contemporary guitar scene that would be scarcely comprehensible to Mr. Fender is the concept of the guitar as a work of art unto itself. While reliability is as important as ever, for many players the concern for “cosmetics” has risen from the peripheral to the essential, and we now recognize the guitar painter, inlayer, or carver as an artist in his own right.

Or her own right, as the case may be. Pamelina Hovnatanian, better known as Pamelina H, has painted everything from storefront windows to drum kits for rock stars, but she is best known for her stunning collaborations with Fender. As you will learn here, she has illustrated the Custom Shop’s best known Art Guitars.

When we consider “cosmetic” aspects of guitars, we may think of relatively recent custom-color finishes and tasteful inlays - a flowerpot on the headstock, birds on the fingerboard - as well as the natural beauty of wood grains and figures. But in fact the pairing of musical function with more elaborate ornamentation is in keeping with the guitar’s oldest traditions. Some of the European instruments of centuries past were practically encrusted with inlays, covered with paintings, and otherwise adorned in extravagant fashion. Perhaps it’s not so surprising that the products of Leo Fender’s mechanical, methodical mind have proved to be appropriate canvases for a visionary artist who paints faeries, flying turtles, and fanciful mermaids from the oceans of planets as yet undiscovered.

While Pamelina’s creations are justifiably celebrated for their artistry, their significance exceeds their ornamental aspects. The classic Fender designs have ascended to what I have called “the cloud-wreathed Mount Olympus of culture totems, alongside Levi’s jeans, the Chrysler Building, and Flathead Harley-Davidsons,” and Pamelina’s work has acquired a commemorative dimension, in keeping with the iconic status of Fender guitars, their association with historic players and events, and their ability to inspire the creativity of players the world over.

Pamelina H and the Fender Custom Shop
by John Page

I first met Pamelina at a NAMM show sometime in the mid- to late eighties. She had a backpack and a portfolio, and, as I would soon find out, a gigantic set of balls and incredible talent. As I recall, she just walked up, introduced herself, pulled out her portfolio and said, "Hey, check this out! I want to do some work for you guys." I used to get hit-up all the time by "artists" that wanted to do work for us at the Custom Shop, but none of their work ever got to me.

Then there was Pamelina.

Even in those early years her work was spectacular… it just seemed to have a soul, you could feel the artist coming through. I knew I had to give her a try. In those early days Pam (also lovingly known as "Pamaweenis", but only by me) would come by the shop and I’d give her some bodies and say “do what you do”, and she’d take off and create these ultra-cool pieces. Some we sold and some we didn’t, but it was the beginning of an amazing relationship between two artists, and created some historic product for the Fender Custom Shop as well.

I could talk forever about all the projects we did together, the Harley Davidson Strat, the Playboy Strat, The Hendrix Strat, the list goes on for miles. I guess the coolest thing for me was that she could see what I saw in my head. We would have these "creative meetings" together, and I would do some chicken scratches on paper and she would get it… do you understand how important that is? She “saw” what I “thought” and could create it… amazing!

We've developed a great love and admiration for each other over these last years. Without her talent and inspiration, the Fender Custom Shop would not have been what it was or what it is today. There are a lot of painters out there, but very few true artists… Pamelina is one of the few. I am very proud to have had the pleasure of working with her and prouder still to call her my friend.

Interview with Artist Pamelina H

Tom Watson for the Strat Collector News Desk: How did your relationship with the Fender Custom Shop begin?

Pamelina H: I have to go back to before my first meeting with the Fender Custom Shop. I’d been painting guitars for a small shop in the Bay Area - Left is Right Guitars. That's where I learned about the NAMM show. I painted a guitar and headed for Los Angeles. Security at NAMM was much more lax back in 1987, and I snuck in with the painted guitar and an art portfolio.

One of the people I met was John Page. We hit it off immediately and made arrangements to do some work together. I didn’t know it at the time, but the Custom Shop was new. I moved to the Los Angeles area soon after that, and John Page sent me bodies to paint. I was free to paint whatever I wished.

I believe the very first guitar I painted was a woman’s ass clad in shiny leather hot pants.

SCND: Probably the three best-known Fender Custom Shop guitars that you've been involved with are the 1993 Harley-Davidson 90th Anniversary Stratocaster, the 1994 Playboy 40th Anniversary Stratocaster and the 1997 Jimi Hendrix Monterey Pop Festival Stratocaster. How did the Harley, Playboy and Monterey Strats come about with respect to their design?

PH: Whenever John Page and I started work on a new project, we'd meet and brainstorm. We'd throw ideas out and we'd both write them down. I'd take my notes home and start sketching out the ideas in pencil. The initial sketches would go through several revisions until we had what we wanted. At that point, I would do a full-color rendering.

With the Harley Anniversary Stratocaster, I wasn't involved with the design past the rendering stage. I don't know what, if any, input the Harley company had with respect to the design concept - they would have been talking to John Page. As you can see from my rendering of the Harley Strat, revisions continue even after that point.

I'm sure the Harley-Davidson company had to give approval of the final design.

SCND: I've seen some Playboy Strat artwork that's much different than what’s on the instruments produced - much tamer artwork. How did the final design come about?

PH: You must be talking about the initial design that I came up with that’s shown in the Custom Shop book ["Fender Custom Shop Gallery" by Richard Smith]. By then, I knew more about Fender and what I thought would be appropriate. The rest of my tale here is third-party knowledge - the guitar with my original "no nude" design was presented to Playboy and scrubbed. They asked if, instead, the first pin-up of Marilyn Monroe could be done.

I re-did the artwork using the 1954 Marilyn Monroe "Playboy" magazine centerfold, which was definitely not "tame". I wasn’t at the meeting in which Fender approved the artwork, and I was pleasantly surprised when we got it.

I painted the Marilyns for a year.

LeRoy Neiman drew the character for the headstock. You’re a guy - you’ll know better than me what she’s called. She has a name, I just can’t think of it. [Neiman's character is called a "Femlin". Also, the Playboy rabbit head logo that is used as fret markers was originally designed by "Playboy" magazine's first art director, Art Paul.]

SCND: How were you able to paint the pin-up image on each of the 175 guitars so they all look identical, or do they vary to some extent?

PH: Since each one is painted by hand, there's always some very minor variation. That's what makes each instrument special and unique.

SCND: Is all of your work on the Custom Shop guitars airbrushing? If not, what other techniques do you employ?

PH: Most of what you see is airbrushing. The airbrush is a small spray gun. It's hooked up to an air source - my preferred air source is a tank of pressurized carbon dioxide. The airbrushes I use incorporate a "gravity feed", meaning the paint feeds into the spray gun from a small cup on top of the airbrush as opposed to a side cup from which the paint is pulled into the gun by suction. The paint feeds into the air channel, mixes, and comes out as a spray.

Every job also incorporates paintbrush work for the details. I used to use a lot of pencil, but now that I'm more comfortable with my skills I never do that anymore. Another favorite medium of mine is gold leaf.

SCND: And the Jimi Hendrix Monterey Pop Festival Stratocaster?

PH: The Hendrix Monterey Strat was interesting. The only reference I had to go by was the video of the concert. I was given a VHS that I looked at frame-by-frame. It took about four hours - all the time sketching what I could see.

The first version I did was as close to the original as I could get it. That meant it was sloppy and looked like it had been painted by somebody who was high. Fender didn't care for it and asked that I "Pamelina" it. I smoothed out the artwork and painted the mock backstage pass that was then reproduced and applied to each guitar. Everything was approved by the Hendrix family before it went into production.

SCND: Your work appears on a large number of Fender Art Guitars. What are some of the instruments you are especially fond of?

PH: The Catalina Blues Festivals were such a treat to work on. Everything from going to the island and soaking up the vibe to painting George Amicay’s wonderful contours. Those guitars were special on many levels. John [Page] and I were the sole designers on those. The guitars went hand-in-hand with artwork for the promotional poster. First the artwork for the poster was created, then an accompanying guitar was designed and drawn. The drawing went to George Amicay, who carved the guitars from it. Then they were returned to me for painting.

The Velvet Elvis was also very special. It was such a hoot, you know? We had also talked about doing another velvet painting inside the guitar case. John and I wanted to do a version of the Last Supper with the poker-playing dogs sitting in and being served by the seventies classic black woman with an afro. Needless to say, Fender said, "I don’t think so..."

SCND: How do Art Guitars come into existence - how are the ideas generated?

PH: There is no set method. Some were my ideas, some were others'. John Page was brilliant at coming up with ideas. I never physically worked at the Custom Shop, so I don’t know how they go about things on other Art Guitars. I know that at the moment, the creative aspect seems to be mostly in the hands of individual Master Builders. Who has the last say-so on each project, I really don’t know.

SCND: What was your involvement with the current Fender Custom Shop logo?

PH: John Page and I came up with that ourselves. He wanted the car-chrome vibe. I went out and looked at beautiful old cars and their chrome elements, and came up with the design. Together, we refined it and produced the finished product. I then sold it to Fender for a song. It's one of those tales you hear all the time - people who kick themselves for letting go of something way too cheap. I was young at the time and didn't know better.

Since then, the logo has been updated through computer graphics by someone else. I hand-painted the original logo.

SCND: What are you and the Custom Shop working on now?

PH: I recently delivered a guitar that was displayed [and sold] at the 2004 Winter NAMM Show. It’s called the Plastiform Stratocaster. It has an art-deco or art-nouveaux look and feel.

Pamelina's pre-construction design artwork for the Plastiform Stratocaster.

Pamelina H and the completed Plastiform Strat at the 2004 Winter NAMM Show.

I also recently delivered two bodies that have Texas themes painted on them for a Guitar Center in Texas. One is "Old Texas" and the other is "Texas Now". "Old Texas" is painted on a natural Telecaster, and "Texas Now" is painted on a white Stratocaster. [Close-up images of "Texas Now" while in progress.]

SCND: You work at home?

PH: Yes. I've never worked at the Custom Shop. I have a studio at home. My work with the Fender Custom Shop has always been as an independent contractor. I am glad I can work at home. This way I can set my own hours and avoid a lot of the distractions you have to put up with when working in a busy environment.

I really prefer working in my own studio. I'm a night owl and very few jobs offer the hours I like to keep. I saw an ad once that I immediately related to that read, "9 to 5 means 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.". The best time for me to work is when the world around me is asleep: the phone's not ringing, no one's knocking at the door, no sports on TV...

Pamelina H in her studio working on "Texas Now".

It's also been very important to me to stay home and raise my son. I've turned down a couple of really good-paying positions for just that reason. It paid off. My son is now 15 and he's not in jail.

Of course, there are some downsides - no vacation pay, no sick pay, no benefits. I'm also very isolated. I affectionately refer to my studio as "the dungeon". This is a 24/7 occupation. It's not my "work". It's my life.

Pamelina H and Fender Custom Shop Senior Master Builder Todd Krause look at "Old Texas".

Close up of the two completed bodies.

I was at the Custom Shop for several hours the other day and talked about a couple of other projects with the individual builders. There’s nothing set in stone, so I’m not going to mention them just yet.

SCND: In what other types of art are you involved?

PH: I’ve worked on a lot of tour merchandise for different bands and individuals - Genesis, Megadeth, Aerosmith, and ten years of artwork for Jimmy Buffett. That grew into doing merchandise designs for Looney Tunes. Now that was fun.

I like to keep busy doing many things. Stays interesting that way. This isn’t a far stretch from guitars, but I also paint drums and other instruments, too. Most of the drum art has come by way of DW Drums. It’s not on my website, but I once painted a gong for Mick Fleetwood. My first set of drums was for Rikki Rockett, since then I’ve done work for Tommy Lee, Omar Hakim, Jonathan Moffitt, Sheila E and others.

I’ve also painted quite a few motorcycles over the years. My most memorable are two that I did for one man - The Spiderman bike and the Incredible Hulk bike. The next one in the works is Mortal Combat. Or is it Kombat?



In my personal work, fantasy is the reigning theme. I’ve had two calendars of mermaids published, several of which were reprinted as centerfolds in Tattoo Magazine. I especially like tribal art - it's really just art nouveau in modern times, which is great because I love art nouveau and art deco.

I recently sent in my first of two design concepts for the GuitarMania Project in Cleveland. Fender is sponsoring one guitar and I’m being placed in a pool of artists to paint a second guitar. It’s going to be a real treat to paint a 10-foot-tall Strat with no limitations whatsoever.

SCND: Guitar collector Mike Perry is going to have a Master Built instrument made in tribute to his wife, Claudette, and has retained your design services before submitting the order to a Fender Master Dealer. Is this a service available to the public, and, if so, approximately how much do you charge?

PH: Certainly it's available to the public. You have to realize that I'm not now nor have I ever been an employee of Fender. It's one of those positions that I've turned down in the past. I have my own business. It's been solely my choice to do guitar artwork exclusively for Fender over the past 10 years. I think it gives the work a special value, both for Fender and for myself.

A design concept which results in a beautifully computer-rendered graphic from which a guitar can be built starts at $150 [see example below]. To me, it's an absolute necessity to work out all the details on paper before the guitar is built so there are no surprises or disappointments. The final art on the Texas guitars changed somewhat, but that's because the artwork was under my control and I could make improvements as I went along. If this was a personal commission, the changes would've been shown to the customer before execution.

But remember, this is a design service that occurs before the customer places the order for a Master Built instrument with a Master Dealer. The charge for my work on the actual guitar will be part of the price quote the customer receives from the dealer. The customer pays me for the pre-order design work and then pays the Master Dealer for the actual instrument, and that price will include the work I do on the instrument itself.

SCND: Do you foresee a day when you'll move away from creating Art Guitars?

PH: Sure...

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For further information regarding Pamelina H, please visit her website at www.pamelina.com.

About Tom Wheeler    [back to top]

Author, journalist, teacher (University of Oregon's School of Journalism) and guitarist Tom Wheeler is no stranger to the Fender Stratocaster. In fact, he is no stranger to the electric guitar, period. His writing credits include, "The Guitar Book: A Handbook for Electric and Acoustic Guitarists", "American Guitars: An Illustrated History", and his latest book, "The Stratocaster Chronicles: Celebrating 50 Years of the Fender Strat", which is due for release in March of 2004. This is in addition to having served as the Editor in Chief of "Guitar Player" magazine (for which he continues to provide a monthly column) and having been the founding Editorial Director of "Bass Player" magazine - along with numerous other writing credits for having edited or contributed to many other books about the electric guitar.

About John Page    [back to top]

John Page started building guitars in 1973 with his own company, Page Guitar Works. From there he went to Fender Guitars in 1978, where he worked as a Model Maker in Research and Development with Leo Fender’s original engineer, Freddie Tavares. He was promoted to Guitar Designer in 1980 and worked his way up to Manager of Guitar Design by 1986, when he took an eleven-month hiatus to work on his songwriting.

He returned to Fender in 1987 to start the Custom Shop, working with artists such as Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Gilmore and hundreds of others. He continued on as Custom Shop Manager and Fender Vice-President until 1996, when he left to start the Fender Museum of Music and the Arts, a performing-arts museum and education center.

John is now retired from the musical-instrument industry, and is a full-time visual artist.

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Discuss: link to SCND discussion forum for this article

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