Sharing-Spaces.com - The art of

Fifty-five years ago. Gene "Scooter" Kinnaman was doodling on his
homework in elementary school. Despite appearances he wasn't wasting
time. Scooter took those scribbles and his imagination to the next level and
became an artist. Whether he's drawing names, painting motorcycles, boats
or cars, the Warsaw man has turned a hobby into a business, Original
Classic Customs.

"I've always been artistic" he said. "I stuck my right arm in a printing press
(destroying his right hand) and it limited my artistic ability. So I learned how to
use my left arm and hand."

Today the artist is well known for his sharing spaces process of drawing
names. The theory uses the number of characters in a name rather than the
number of letters. For instance. The name Mississippi may have eleven
letters but in only has four characters M-I-S-P. Scooter creates names with
the characters from pen and colored pencils. His greatest inspiration, he
said, was from the names of Janice and Artie. When the names were created
in the sharing spaces style, Scooter knew he had something pleasing - to
himself and his customers. Popular requests include family trees. Scooter
illustrates the names of the parents and children, etc., separately. Together
they form a family tree. A family tree is typically five names, mom, dad, and
three children.

He also has in stock several popular first names, but because there are so
many unique spellings of names in this day and age, custom orders are often
necessary.

"I enjoy this work so much and people pay me when I'm done" said Scooter.
"I enjoy looking at their faces when they come out to pick up their work."